If cricketers had a day named after them

9. All Rounder’s Day – Jacques Kallis (October 16):

The only man to have scored over 10000 runs and taken over 250 wickets in both forms of the game, Jacques Kallis is a modern-day colossus. The greatest all-rounder ever, or perhaps the greatest South African cricketer ever, Jacques was almost equally as good with the ball as with the bat. With over 24,000 international runs, Kallis retired with remarkable averages of 55 in Tests and 44 in ODIs.

He was a classy batsman, strong of either foot and able to hold the fort for South Africa for long, long periods of time. Kallis has the third highest runs in Test cricket ever with 45 centuries, second only to Sachin’s 51, and has 17 hundreds to show for his ODI credentials.

As a bowler, Kallis was often overlooked by oppositions but his tally of 292 wickets in Tests and 273 wickets in ODIs, both at a decent average of about 32, gives us the testament to how effective he was as a complete package. Kallis was the arguably the greatest all-rounder ever, even better than Sir Gary Sobers on the basis of the longevity of his career and it would not be wrong to call him the most complete cricketer to ever play the game.