“I know I have made the right choice”
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
Legendary South Africa all-rounder Jacques Kallis has announced that he retired at the right time and did not make a spur of the moment decision.
Despite expressing his eagerness to represent South Africa in the 2015 World Cup, Kallis felt that he made the right choice to call it quits.
“I have always said the day I wake up and I don’t have that feeling of wanting to play international cricket, I’ll call it quits and that’s exactly what happened,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “I was always going to be honest with myself about that. It would have been nice to get through to the 2015 World Cup but I’m certainly not going to play if I am even 1% off from where I should be for international cricket.”
Kallis announced his retirement from Test cricket after hitting a memorable century against India in December 2013 and his ODI retirement after scoring 0,1 and 4 in the ODI series against Sri Lanka in July.
“I know I have made the right choice. I sleep comfortably at night,” he said. “I felt I had spent enough time away from home, other things were more important than international cricket to me.”
Even though he will not be playing in the upcoming World Cup, Kallis is confident that South Africa can win the tournament at some point in the future.
“Somewhere along the line I can guarantee you South Africa will win a World Cup and the way the team is playing at the moment, there’s no reason it can’t be the one coming up,” he said.
Kallis is currently representing the Kolkata Knight Riders in the ongoing Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20) and admitted that he is enjoying mentoring the younger players in the squad.
“When I grew up, seniors did that for me,” he said. “I have 20 years of knowledge and I can pass that on to some of the youngsters and help them become cricketers they want to become.”
Despite there being growing concerns about the future of Test cricket due to the popularity of Twenty20 cricket, Kallis believes the longest format of the game is still “healthy”.
“I believe there’s no need to change anything about Test cricket,” he said. “Cricketers still want to be judged at how good they are in Tests. I think T20 has been magnificent for the game, it has speeded up Test cricket, made it more exciting, brought new audiences to Test cricket.”