Alviro – A player of the past

Alviro Petersen (34) recently announced his decision to retire from international cricket. This will come into effect from 01 April. The Proteas opening batsman made his Test match debut for South Africa in February 2010, in India. He scored 100 in his first innings.

Alviro Petersen did the right thing by retiring from international cricket now. Photo taken from www.allthingsjabu.co.za

For me, Petersen joined the national side when we were struggling to find good opening batsmen. He did well. His respectable performances seemed like an answer to our need. Establishing himself as a reliable Test opener, he attacked from early on in his innings, slowed down later, and often finished on a good score.

But as with every cricketer, as the years went on he struggled more and more to turn out the good performances we saw from him in the past. The inevitable effect of time influenced his career, and his batting average dropped to less than 40. Then it dropped to the mid thirties, where it will probably stay forever.

Do not misunderstand me. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Alviro Petersen open the batting for South Africa. He displayed great technique and played with confidence. He also played very well for the bizhub Highveld Lions, the domestic cricket team in Johannesburg. I will miss Petersen. But it is time for him to go.

Even the greats Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar had to retire when they could not go on. It is part of life. The spirit may endure but the body and mind will eventually fail. Farewell Alviro Peterson and thanks for five years of good cricket.

Below are Alviro Petersen's statistics as of 12 January 2015:

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	36	64	4	2093	182	34.88	4044	51.75	5	8	256	12	31	0
ODIs	21	19	1	504	80	28.00	610	82.62	0	4	54	3	5	0
T20Is	2	2	0	14	8	7.00	19	73.68	0	0	1	0	1	0
First-class	188	330	17	12191	210	38.94			35	50			148	0
List A	168	161	11	5083	145*	33.88			7	31			64	0
Twenty20	109	103	17	2445	84*	28.43	2005	121.94	0	16	231	59	53	0

Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	36	7	114	62	1	1/2	1/2	62.00	3.26	114.0	0	0	0
ODIs	21	1	6	7	0	-	-	-	7.00	-	0	0	0
T20Is	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
First-class	188		1582	809	16	3/58		50.56	3.06	98.8	0	0	0
List A	168		394	361	8	2/48	2/48	45.12	5.49	49.2	0	0	0
Twenty20	109	19	199	215	9	1/4	1/4	23.88	6.48	22.1	0	0	0

Expiration date of players (Kallis, Jayawardene and de Kock)

Quinton de Kock (21) is a superb young batsman. How many other young cricketers do not receive chances because older players are given positions ahead of them? Photo from CricInfo.

It was nice to see the Proteas beat Sri Lanka in a One Day International series in Sri Lanka for the first time. South Africa won the series 2–1 on 12 July thanks to centuries by Quinton de Kock and AB de Villiers in the deciding match. SA posted 339–5, their highest ODI score against Sri Lanka, and de Kock's 128 was the highest ODI score by a South African batsman against Sri Lanka. In response, Sri Lanka could only muster 257 all out.

But the series highlighted a prevailing issue: the expiration date of players.

Jacques Kallis (38 years old) again failed in a series, scoring 0, 1 and 4 (average of 1.67). At least he can say his scores were increasing. Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lanka's veteran/legend also struggled with scores of 10, 48 and 2 (average of 20). Whereas South Africa's upcoming batsman Quinton de Kock (21 years old) scored 27, 4 and 128 (average of 53).

Jacques Kallis is a true servant of South African cricket. But perhaps it is time for him to retire. Photo from www.dailymail.co.uk

Kallis and Jayawardene have performed heroically for their countries since 1995 and 1997 respectively. Kallis is SA's best ever all-rounder and leading run scorer in Tests and ODIs. Kallis retired from Test cricket at the beginning of this year, and Jayawardene retired from International T20s at the end of the T20 World Cup.

But if both these legends keep failing, no past success should allow them to keep their positions.

Mahela Jayawardene. Photo from http://sports.ndtv.com

Kallis - What he means to me

I had prepared a long blog post about Jacques Kallis, who recently retired from test cricket.

It was about how I believe we judge people by their deeds and character, and how I think you can judge Jacques Kallis by his. 

However, he kept things simple, even his farewell.

Jacques Kallis (38) scored a century in his final test innings, taking him to third in the highest all-time run scorers list in tests. Image taken from http://www.cricketdawn.com/.

So I will briefly tell you what Jacques Kallis means to me, Nicholas Zaal.

Jacques Kallis showed that a nation like mine is capable of dominating in a certain field, forgive the pun. Like Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, Kallis gave his nation hope that they can be as good, if not better, than the countries which were traditionally seen as the best in cricket (England & Australia) - although Lara's nation already dominated world cricket once before him. 

Of course these people were not alone in this, they were assisted by their side-kick contemporary teammates. Tendulkar was assisted by Dravid, Sehwag, Kumble etc. and Lara was assisted by Chanderpaul (one of my favourite batsmen), Gayle and Sarwan. Kallis had Pollock, Ntini, Smith, Gibbs, de Villiers, Amla, Steyn and more.

While Barry Richards, Graeme Pollock, Peter Pollock, Eddie Barlow and Mike Procter did the same for South Africa in the previous century, Kallis took it much further. 

What I am trying to say is that Jacques Kallis has shown me we have tremendous potential in this country. I think that his success in cricket has raised the bar in South African cricket. Our modern batsmen are not content with test averages in the forties or even ODI averages in the thirties (think Amla, de Villiers and Smith). 

Kallis is living proof that we as a nation are as good as any other, and I believe his effort and success is linked to our own country's in cricket. South Africa is the number one test nation, having kept the test mace since we first won it on 1 April 2013, and we look set to retain it for a while.

PS: For those of you who are interested, I have been away from my computer for a while because I have developed Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in my right hand. I was prohibited from using the computer or playing guitar. It will get better, but I will probably have to have an operation. I am unable to avoid using the computer now with my new job.

Should Jacques Kallis retire now?

It seems that in recent talk from Jacques Kallis, CSA CEO Haroon Lorgat and Proteas coach Russell Domingo that while they would all like Kallis's experience in the 2015 World Cup, form will be a factor. Thus they say they will monitor his performance "season by season". 

Read the story here: http://www.espncricinfo.com/southafrica/content/story/663705.html  

Jacques Kallis (37) has made 11,498 runs in 321 ODIs for the Proteas. Image taken from http://www.espncricinfo.com

My Opinion

Kallis's performances for South African cricket cannot be described in words. When he is not playing, his presence is sorely missed and in theory it would be great having him play for SA in the 2015 WC to be held in Australia and New Zealand. However, do we know he will still be great, or worth his place, then? His choosing to not play in a few ODI series the last couple of seasons has probably been good for prolonging his career but has this been what's best for the team? It is hard to say. Certainly a better and refreshed Kallis is good now, but then we were weaker in the games without him.

I think that I tend to over-analyse situations, but here I go. Kallis wants to prolong his career so he can play in 2015. But we don't know if he will still be good then. Domingo has said that no one is guaranteed a place in the WC, it all depends on fitness and form. Domingo has also said that Kallis must play enough ODI cricket if he wants to play in the WC. This sounds wise to me.

Although, if Cricket South Africa think that Kallis will still be good enough to play in the WC in 2015, even if he has to miss half of the series before then, I would say let it be. Kallis is a great after all, likely SA's best ever cricketer.

But if Kallis is perceived to be getting worse and less fit to be able to play, of which there is no shame as it happens to everyone over time, CSA should make the hard decision and put in place a succession plan for him before 2015. I am not saying that Kallis must retire today, but if CSA thinks he will not be able to compete effectively at 2015, they must start looking for a replacement(s) in the ODIs from this season. In test matches a Kallis replacement should be a batsman and in the ODIs, with Duminy back, we probably would also only need to swap him with a batsman.

Kallis says,  "It remains my aspiration to be available for the 2015 World Cup but, at the same time I know as an allrounder approaching my 38th birthday, I will need to assess my future in the game season by season." 

I think CSA need to monitor Kallis closely in this upcoming cricket season (and by the way let's hope that this scrutinising does not add detrimental pressure to Kallis), and make a decision that will be best for the team.

Cricket legends are given too much agency about when they* would like to retire. This can sometimes hurt them as well as the teams they are in. Your thoughts?

Kallis's cricket averages (Taken from http://www.espncricinfo.com on 23 August 2013) 

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	162	274	40	13128	224	56.10	28486	46.08	44	58	1469	97	194	0
ODIs	321	307	53	11498	139	45.26	15756	72.97	17	85	903	136	125	0
T20Is	25	23	4	666	73	35.05	558	119.35	0	5	56	20	7	0
First-class	253	415	57	19534	224	54.56			61	97			258	0
List A	417	399	65	14764	155*	44.20			23	108			156	0
Twenty20	134	130	21	3517	89*	32.26	3153	111.54	0	26	349	73	42	0

Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	162	267	19842	9341	288	6/54	9/92	32.43	2.82	68.8	7	5	0
ODIs	321	280	10636	8558	270	5/30	5/30	31.69	4.82	39.3	2	2	0
T20Is	25	19	276	333	12	4/15	4/15	27.75	7.23	23.0	1	0	0
First-class	253		28643	13338	423	6/54		31.53	2.79	67.7		8	0
List A	417		13559	10650	348	5/30	5/30	30.60	4.71	38.9	3	3	0
Twenty20	134	115	2138	2742	87	4/15	4/15	31.51	7.69	24.5	1	0	0