Pie Chucker

Wisden today announced South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis as the ‘Leading Cricketer in the World’ for 2007.  His stats are impressive: 1,210 runs at an average of 86 & 20 wickets at 25 each.  Kallis said:

“It is a great honour to receive this award, you feel very humble when you realize what an accolade it is and you look at the names of the other cricketers to be honoured.”

The previous winners of an award introduced 4 years ago are: Ponting, Warne, Freddie & Murali.  Two Aussies, a fat slogger and a (great bowler often wrongly labelled as a) chucker - humbling indeed.  The choice of Kallis is likely to upset some cricket fans…

…as the all-rounder is seen as selfish, often batting for his average ahead of the needs of the team, a man who often runs his team mates out & a very reluctant bowler.  Peter Roebuck describes him as “the first indisputably great African cricketer of the post-apartheid era” though to many he is a South African Geoff Boycott, a player who plays for himself first and his team second.  Perhaps this is harsh on Kallis (& Boycott).  Quite how Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock feel about Roebuck’s description is another matter.

Personally, I don’t see how Ryan Sidebottom was overlooked for this award, even if he was named as one of Wisden’s five cricketers of the year, alongside Ian Bell, Zaheer Kahn, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ottis Gibson.  Is 2008 to be the year of the Sidebottom?