Kallis or Sobers: Who's the greatest all-rounder of them all?

Moeen Ali’s all-round performance in the first Test had a major role to play in England’s win, reinforcing the importance of a match-winning all-rounder in all forms of cricket. Over the years, all-rounders have had a major influence on their team’s success.

The 80’s were the golden age for all-rounders as Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, Ian Botham and Richard Hadlee led from the front and were instrumental in their team’s success. Ever since then, teams have tried to look for that elusive player which will balance their team and also give them more match winning options.

Sir Garry Sobers was probably the first all-rounder to be widely acknowledged as the best player of his generation and can lay claim to being one of the greatest players of all time, in fact, he is widely considered to be one of the best all-rounders that the game has seen. In recent times, Jacques Kallis has been the leading all-rounder for the better part of the last decade and a half decade before that. It is never easy to compare two players who have played in different eras as the conditions, opposition as well as the pitches change across eras, making an objective argument becomes difficult.

While most consider Sobers to be a natural shorter format player, he only played a solitary One Day International where he was dismissed for a duck and took only one wicket in 63 balls. Kallis, on the other hand, has represented South Africa in all three formats.

To keep the comparison fair though, the analysis has to be restricted to Test cricket where the sample size is significant as Sobers played 93 Test matches while Kallis has played 166.

Here’s a look at the numbers of the two players to decide who is the greatest of all time.

Batting and Fielding

Kallis scored 13,289 runs at an average of 55.37 with 45 hundreds; Sobers scored 8032 at an average of 57.78 with 26 hundreds. While West Indies won only 31 of the 93 Tests played by Sobers, South Africa have won 82 of the 166 Test matches played by Kallis.

This is one area where Kallis significantly trumps Sobers. Sobers took an average of 1.17 catches per match (109 in 93 matches) while Kallis had a corresponding figure of 1.20 per match (200 in 166 matches). While Kallis was an excellent catcher in the slips, Sobers was equally dynamic irrespective of the position he was fielding in.

With numbers like that, Sobers and Kallis could make the team as batsmen alone. Hence, their bowling and fielding skills were additional that made them invaluable. Kallis and Sobers were the leading batsmen in their team for most of their careers and their impact on the match was palpable. Sobers, at one stage, held the record for the highest Test score; he scored 365 against Pakistan; a record that was eventually broken by a fellow West Indian, Brian Lara.

Bowling

Sobers could bowl variety whereas Kallis kept it simple

Sobers’ batting was all class and charisma, but his bowling was a conjurer’s dream as he could bowl left arm fast-medium, slow left-arm orthodox and slow left arm chinaman. Kallis kept things simple as he focused on bowling right arm fast-medium and could bowl a particularly heavy ball early in his career. While he took the new ball occasionally in limited overs cricket, he was a reliable fourth seamer or second change bowler throughout his career in a quality South African pace attack.

Sobers consistently took the new ball for West Indies in Test cricket and bowled spin with the old ball once the shine had worn off. Sobers 235 wickets came at an average of 34.03 whereas Kallis’ 292 wickets came at an average of 32.65.

Kallis, though mostly bowled after quality bowlers like Shaun Pollock, Allan Donald, Makhaya Ntini, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel. Sobers, on the other hand, bowled at a time when the quality of the West Indies’ pace bowlers wasn’t the best and the fearsome quartet of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Colin Croft and Joel Garner was yet to burst onto international cricket.

Conclusion

While Kallis has to go down as one of the best players of all time with his stellar numbers, Sobers’ aura is hard to match and he is probably only second to the Don when a list of the greatest players of all time is made. Kallis, on the other hand, might struggle to make most such teams as his batting was steady and his bowling was honest.

Garry Sobers played in a team which had a handful of world class players yet helped them to win one-third of all matches he played. Hence, he has to be the greatest all-rounder of all time.