‘Jacques Kallis is the best cricketer the world has ever seen’

Sydney: Australian coach Mickey Arthur has hailed South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis as the world`s best ever cricketer, rating him second only to cricket legend Sir Donald Bradman.

Arthur has coached Kallis for five years with the South Africa team. “In my opinion he is the best cricketer the world has ever seen - outside of Don Bradman. Just look at his statistics. Don Bradman excluded, he is way above the rest of his era, and probably in any era,” a website quoted Arthur, as saying. According to the report, Arthur`s assertion is backed up by the numbers in Kallis`s career: 12,641 Test runs at 56.94 and 280 wickets at 32.63. He said that Kallis could be compared to a well-blended mix of cricket greats Ricky Ponting and Brett Lee. "With Kallis, we always said you got two great players in one. Can you imagine putting Ricky Ponting and Brett Lee into the one player? That is the sort of thing you get with Jacques,” Arthur said. ANI