South Africa’s loss is England’s gain as Jacques Kallis joins coaching staff

Jacques Kallis during his time playing with Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash

When England announced their coaching set-up for the forthcoming two-Test tour to Sri Lanka, one name stood out. Jacques Kallis, the former South Africa all-rounder, was one of the finest players the game has seen, a champion whose returns with bat, ball and in the field, in Test and limited-overs cricket, would mark him out as a truly great player in any era.

Kallis steps into a new role as temporary batting consultant in place of Marcus Trescothick, who was used in South Africa, while Graham Thorpe, who often doubles up as assistant coach and batting coach, is rested for this small tour. Bearing in mind the challenging requirements of bubble life, as well as the crammed schedule for 2021, England will continue to rest and rotate their playing and coaching staff in the near future.

As a result, opportunities will arise to tap into the knowledge and expertise of some interesting names, albeit temporarily. In similar conditions to those that the batsmen will face in India, for a much longer stretch in February and March, Kallis can help improve some of England’s younger, less experienced batsmen in the ways of combating and exploiting spin.

Varied voices are rarely a bad thing, especially when it comes to someone of Kallis’s stature, and it will be a rare treat for players such as Dom Sibley (it is hard to think of a greater contrast in method than between Sibley and the rigidly orthodox Kallis), Dan Lawrence and Zak Crawley to pick Kallis’s brain on the art of playing spin, as well as an opportunity for some of the more experienced players to learn some new tricks.

How well Kallis can communicate those skills is important of course — he has worked as a coach with Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League and more recently with his native South Africa — but his understanding of how to succeed in Asian conditions is not in doubt. Only Alastair Cook, of non-Asian batsmen, has scored more than Kallis’s eight Test hundreds in that part of the world and Kallis’s average of 55 in Asia is the same as his overall average. He travelled well in the subcontinent, at a time when all the powerhouses there had world-class spinners.

By reputation, South Africans have not always been thought of as particularly good players of spin, although clearly that does not apply to Kallis. He had a good teacher early on in his career, being a student of the former England coach Duncan Fletcher in his early days in Cape Town. Fletcher was instrumental in improving a generation of England batsmen against spin during his time in charge of the national team.

Kallis’s appointment says as much about South Africa as England. Under stipulations introduced in September, and as part of their affirmative action drive, South Africa will appoint only non-white consultants — unless it can be proved that no suitable candidates are available. At a stroke, that policy limited the options for some fine former white South African cricketers such as Kallis, Shaun Pollock and Allan Donald. South Africa’s loss is England’s gain.

It also reaffirms the financial clout that England continue to enjoy, though negotiations were said to be straightforward. Although the pandemic has had a significant impact on all parts of the game, leaving the ECB, for example, a much more streamlined organisation than before, there is still a recognition that the national team are the shop window and require competent and creative back-up.

So the coaching package to Sri Lanka is a comprehensive one. Two other key areas in the subcontinent are wicketkeeping and spin bowling. James Foster, the outstanding former wicketkeeper for Essex and England, continues in the role he played in South Africa, while Jeetan Patel is used as a spin-bowling consultant, working with Moeen Ali, Dom Bess and Jack Leach.

In mid-December, England put out job specs for full-time, spin-bowling, pace-bowling and batting roles, and while it is thought unlikely that Kallis will be a candidate for the latter, it can hardly be a disadvantage, in the short term, to tap into his extensive knowledge and expertise.

The Times