5 legendary cricketers whose jerseys should be retired forever

4. Jacques Kallis

They said you could either be a world better as a batsman or a world better as a bowler. However, Jacques Kallis didn’t take it that way. The South African legend was a terrific and a world-class batsman but also one of the spearheads of the South African bowling attack during his days. Well if you pick close to 600 International wickets and score up to 25,000 International runs, you have to be pretty good at a job and Kallis was on top of his game since his debut in 1995 till his last international game in 2014.

He would be called a ‘Silent Assassin’ by fans. Standing at one end, batting solidly and driving South Africa to victory. And when the captain needed a bowler to step in and support the bowling attack, there was Kallis at it again. Taking the new ball, old ball or whichever ball is given to him by the captain. Some experts in South Africa claim that if Kallis wouldn’t have been a batsman, he would still make it to the South African side just as a bowler. Yes, he was that good back in the day.

The sheer volume of runs and wickets that he has taken through his career is surprisingly a lot and cannot be discounted. He is the greatest all-rounder to have ever played the sport without a doubt. Yes, people would claim Gary Sobers as the best but with all due respect to the legend, he only played one format of the game.

While Kallis, on the other hand, was an exhibitionist and master of the art in all forms of the game. After retiring from international cricket, he also went on to play a lot of franchise T20 league. This just goes to show the ability and versatility, this man had. The iconic jersey number 3 is associated with Kallis and he wore it for the longer part of his career. Retiring the number would be the correct way to give a tribute to this legendary all-rounder.