Jacques Kallis: Cricket South Africa's crown jewel

After Jacques Kallis became the latest inductee into the ICC Cricket's Hall of Fame, Cricket South Africa (CSA) said that the former Proteas cricketer is a jewel in their crown. The former legendary allrounder was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame along with former Australia women's all-rounder Lisa Sthalekar and former Pakistan batsman Zaheer Abbas. The ceremony was live streamed on ICC's social media channels when he was honoured alongside two other all-time greats of the game, Lisa Sthalekar of Australia and Zaheer Abbas of Pakistan.

"It is highly fitting that Jacques should be honoured in this way. Jacques' long list of achievements hardly need repeating but suffice it to say he stands alongside the great Sir Garfield Sobers as the greatest batting all-rounder of all time and is certainly our greatest player of the modern era. He earned his place in every Protea team he represented both as a top-order batsman and as an outstanding swing bowler of lively pace. In addition, his slip catching was legendary and contributed significantly to the successes our fast bowlers enjoyed throughout his career," CSA Acting Chief Executive Kugandrie Govender said in an official release.

"Most important of all is the outstanding example he has set for the highest standards of sportsmanship and the traditions of the game to inspire not just aspiring young cricketers but the youth of the entire country. He is indeed one of the crown jewels of the CSA family and I can speak on behalf of the entire nation in congratulating him and saying how proud we all are of him," she added.

The other South Africans to have been inducted into the Hall of Fame are Graeme Pollock, Barry Richards and Allan Donald.

Last year Kallis was also honoured with the Ikhamanga Award in the Silver Division by the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, for his excellence in cricket and the contribution he has made to putting South Africa on the world sports map.

Kallis is the only player to score at least 10,000 runs and take at least 250 wickets in both Test and ODI cricket. He was named as the ICC Player of the Year and ICC Test Player of the year in 2005.

The right-handed batsman is South Africa's leading Test run-scorer, and is currently third on the all-time list. He is the most capped South African player in both Test and ODI cricket.

Kallis has won 23 'Player of the Match' awards in Test cricket, more than anyone else. He spent 592 days as the number one ranked Test batsman (2005-2011) and he spent 4028 days as the number one ranked Test all-rounder (2000-2013).