Jacques Kallis' Birthday: Celebrating influence of family and Bob Woolmer on his cricket legacy

Jacques Kallis' Birthday- Celebrating influence of family and Bob Woolmer on his Cricket Legacy (Photo Source: X/Twitter)

The cricket world has seen many legends gracing the game and scoring truckloads of runs or tormenting batters with their impeccable bowling skills. Moreover, there are some players did had both the abilities of batting and bowling equally well but very rarely won the match for their teams single-handedly. However, there is one legend from South Africa who stands apart from these players. The reason? He was so adept with both the bat and the ball in the hand that more often than not, he turned the tide of the game in the team's favour.

Today October 16, marks the birthday of one of the most influential and legendary all rounder. 's Jacques Henry Kallis, who was born in Cape Town, turned 49 years old today. We often talk about records and the sheer brilliance of the legend on the field, but very rarely the early struggles and the role of a family in a cricketer's life is discussed in the public domain. Besides, one more person who transformed the game of Kallis was the renowned coach, Late Bob Woolmer.

Kallis was known for sharing a very close bond with his father, Henry Kallis. However, he was one of those unfortunate people who lost their mother at an early age. Then later on, in 2003, his father succumbed to lung cancer. Besides his father, the legend has another important person in his life in the form of his sister, Janine. Both of them showed unwavering support from the early days which shaped up the legendary South African's achievements.

Hence on his birthday, let us peep into how Kallis' illustrious career was shaped: 3. Role of father Henry Kallis Jacques Kallis and Henry Kallis (Photo Source : X/Twitter)

When it comes to the role of a parent while getting a player trained, most times fathers either teach or tell the technical aspects of the game. But Henry's role was different from other parents. The key reason for that is in sports most times parents want their kids to do well and under that pretext they tend to push them harder than needed.

As a result, many are not able to deal with immense pressure first from their homes and then the stiff competition on the pitch with peers and opponents. While some parents end up taking their kids to a coach to hone their skills. But the beautiful part about Henry was that during Kallis' formative years, he ensured to be the bowler on the other side of the wicket. Hence as a parent not only did he guide him through knowledge and words of encouragement but also was involved in making Jacques Kallis practice.

2. Unwavering support of sister Janine Jacques Kallis and Janine Kallis (Photo Source : X/Twitter)

Kallis lost his mother early which meant that sister Janine was one special person who had to not only care for her brother like a mother but also became his constant source of motivation during challenging days. Janine used to attend nearly all the matches  played. In fact, during his Under-15 cricket days, he was not selected and it got the legendary South African quite upset and frustrated, both at the same time. It was at that point, that Janine came forward and instilled a mindset of never backing down and showing his true calibre on the field.

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Another factor which counts here is that being the sister of a rising cricket star, people often judged and had high expectations of Janine. Hence, it was tough for her to back Kallis when he did not perform well. Fascinatingly, not many fans know that even after Kallis became a legend, she ensured to remain by the side of Kallis in the Indian Premier League (IPL) as well. In the IPL 2009, Janine was a cheerleader of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team.

1. Transformation of Kallis by the late Bob Woolmer Jacques Kallis and Bob Woolmer (Photo Source : X/Twitter)

The legendary coach Late Bob Woolmer shaped the careers of many international cricket stars. But little is known about Woolmer when it comes to Jacques Kallis. The former South Africa pacer and legend, , once during an interview revealed that Woolmer had astonishingly predicted and said in a bold remark that he had a practice session with Kallis. Notably, in those days, the all rounder was then playing with Wynberg Boys' high school.

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Woolmer had declared that the young prodigy would become one of the greatest cricketers the world would ever get to see after watching him. In fact, the legendary coach was the person who taught Kallis how to deal with the pressure of international cricket and flourish under it without getting perturbed by it. Years later as it turned out, as recalled by Donald about a Test played in Melbourne in 1997, Kallis batted for hours and scored a memorable century for a match-saving cause. Speaking of his career, Kallis featured in 519 international games and scored 25,534 international runs with 62 centuries and 577 wickets in his illustrious international career for South Africa.