Jacques Kallis was arguably one the greatest all-rounders the game has ever seen and he shouldered the South African team for more than a two decades. The former Proteas player suddenly announced his retirement after a three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka, despite setting a target of playing the 2015 World Cup in Australia-New Zealand.
The former Proteas all-rounder said he has no regrets over calling it a day so suddenly and insisted that it was a right time to leave the South African team. Kallis said it was a right call to leave the national team, as after spending enough time away from home he now has time for personal commitments.
“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,” Kallis told ESPN Cricinfo. “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,” he added. “I know I have made the right choice. I sleep comfortably at night. I felt I had spent enough time away from home, other things were more important than international cricket to me.”
If Kallis would have chosen to continue with the team, it would have been his sixth World Cup with the African teams. Kallis insisted that few things have gone wrong for South African in previous occasions and added that the Proteas are World Cup contenders and they are capable of clinching the title in the forthcoming tournament.
