Sachin Tendulkar and Don Bradman are some of the greatest cricketers who have ever played the game of cricket. Tendulkar, known as the God of Cricket, made every other batting record look dwarf when he used to unleash his magic in his heydays, while Bradman’s inhumane consistency is evident with a never-heard average of 99.94 in 52 Test matches.
While Bradman retired in 1948, his legacy is alive in the minds and hearts of cricket fans. Ditto for Tendulkar, who inspired numerous fans in India and across the world to pick up a bat and smash thousands of balls to become what he is today.
There have been some other cricketers too who have been unparalleled in their work. The likes of Virat Kohli, Viv Richards, Brian Lara and Ricky Ponting are some to name. Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has picked his ‘best cricketer that’s ever played’ the game of cricket.
In The Howie Games podcast, Ponting expressed that South African legendary all-rounder Jacques Kallis is the best cricketer to have played. “Jacques Kallis is the best cricketer that’s ever played. I don’t care. I don’t care about all the others. Full stop. 13,000 runs. 44 or 45 Test hundreds. And 300 wickets. Either one of those careers is outstanding,” Ponting said in a podcast.
He highlighted how great Kallis was in both the departments and also on the field. “You can take 300 Test wickets every day of the week, and you take 45 Tests 100s. He’s got them both. He was just a born cricketer. Unorthodox in the slips, didn’t drop anything in the slips, had a sort of funny technique, caught everything.”
“I think he’s the best and the most underrated because he’s not talked about very much at all. Probably because of his personality and his character. He’s not out there. He’s low-key, yeah. Hasn’t done much media work. So, he’s sort of one of those forgotten-about ones a little bit,” Ponting said.
Kallis’ numbers speak volumes of the cricketer he was. Apart from 13289 runs in Tests with 45 centuries, the former South African all-rounder also has 292 wickets in the format. He also has 11579 runs in ODIs with 273 wickets in the 50-over format.