If cricket was a religion,Jacques Kallis was the prophet of perfection

One of the greatest all-rounders will quit Tests after Durban game.

Merry Christmas everyone, Jacques Kallis tweeted on Wednesday,may you all have a blessed one. We should have known something was up: he barely talks to his batting partners,much less his 3,30,527 Twitter followers.

Five hours later,just as much of the South Africa that would more than once in the past 18 years have offered up silent prayers that Kallis would go on forever were saying grace over their most sumptuous lunch of 2013,the news broke: the Kingsmead Test would be Kalliss last.

What that did to the national appetite cannot be known. However,knowledge of the impending announcement seemed to hold little import for Kallis,who looked like he always does unshakable at the centre of his universe as he munched a sandwich on his way down the dressing room stairs after training on Wednesday. Within the hour,the world knew of his decision.

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Then the questions began. Kallis has more runs than Brian Lara,but is 114 behind Rahul Dravid. Didnt he want to give himself more chances to confirm his greatness by having his name chiselled snugly under those of Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting on the runscorers list? He has more wickets than Garfield Sobers,but is only eight away from becoming the 28th bowler to take 300. What if he didnt reach that milestone in Durban? He is one catch away from 200. What if …obsession,except for golf. On a cricket ground,all he understands is getting the job done.

That explains why he used his bat as a driver to let rip off an imaginary tee after reaching 201 not out against India at Centurion in 2010-11. That it had taken him 242 innings to score his first double century mattered less to him than the fact that doing so had earned him lifetime membership of an exclusive golf club: job done.

Kallis has been the eerily calm centre of the storm that tends to envelope the South African team. He speaks little and does much. He is a reliable reader of opponents strengths and weaknesses,but he hardly seems to notice their presence.

We often marvel that Tendulkar became the man he is and stayed true to himself considering the craze-driven society he was born into. Its the other way round with Kallis: he would not have become the man and the player he is had he been born Indian. He cannot – ever – see the reasons for any kind of fuss.

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If you see the ball,hit the ball. If you bowl the ball like this,it will do that. If you keep your little fingers or your thumbs together,there is no catch you cannot take. For players of Kallis calibre,cricket is a simple game. For everyone else,it is damnably difficult.

For instance,there is nothing in the world as level as Kallis bat in his follow-through after a lofted drive. It is scarily,unnaturally straight,an equator of elegance. More disconcerting still,his eyes are perfectly level below the bat. If cricket was a religion,this would be a sign from the gods that we are dealing with a prophet of perfection.

These are not easy things for South Africans to acknowledge. We recognise hard work,discipline and courage as virtues,but we struggle to accept talent as something worth having. Kallis challenges those notions. What are we to make of someone who works hard,is disciplined,has courage,and does it all with more talent than most of his teammates combined? South Africans will never admit this,but Kallis makes no sense to us.

And if you ask what we are going to do now,we are similarly clueless. There is no replacing Kallis. To try do so would be foolish. Virat Kohli did a superb job of filling Tendulkars boots at the Wanderers,but which Indian will not think of Sachin when the second wicket goes down for years yet?

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So it is with Kallis. In JK we trust regardless of his individual performances. AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn are the comets of the South African side,but Kallis is gravity itself. There isnt a South African alive who believes their team could have become No. 1 without him.

Why retire now? Why not wait for the Australia series in February and March in order to bid a proper farewell at Centurion St Georges Park and,especially,Newlands?

Again,we do not know. What we do know is that Kallis will take one more shot at being part of a World Cup-winning team,and that he is not about to pull the plug on his lucrative relationship with the Indian Premier League.

We also know that Kallis will end his Test career at the same ground where it started against England in 1995-96. Batting at number six,he scored one in a match in which the last two days were lost to rain. The skies have since brightened. On a clear day,you can see Kallis. Nothing else matters.

Telford Vice

Telford Vice has covered South African cricket since 1991