Proteas great Jacques Kallis slams Twenty20 format after delay
Peter Badel in Cape Town
JACQUES Kallis, South Africa's most capped Test cricketer, has launched a scathing attack on cricket officialdom for allowing the Twenty20 format to erode the Proteas' showpiece series against Australia.
Michael Clarke's side was originally slated to play three Tests in South Africa, only for administrators to rubber-stamp an abbreviated two-Test series after the domestic Champions League Twenty20 league in India ate into the ICC's future tours calendar.
Compounding the problem, Australia will host a six-Test summer in 2011-12, giving them little room to move ahead of their first home Test against New Zealand at the Gabba on December 1.
Australia's duel with the Proteas is one of the flagship series on the international cricket calendar and local media commentators in South Africa have labelled a downgraded two-Test affair as "embarrassing" and "meaningless".
Kallis, who needs just seven runs to leapfrog West Indies genius Brian Lara as Test cricket's fourth greatest runscorer, said Proteas players were dismayed by the decision to reduce the marquee series, usually a three-Test showdown, to two matches.
"It's not ideal," the 36-year-old veteran said.
"We were never told the reasons for the schedule being the way it us but there's no doubt players from both teams would have made whatever sacrifices were necessary to play three Tests."
A veteran of 145 Tests, Kallis said the problem could have been solved by reducing the number of Twenty20 games between Australia and South Africa from two to one and playing their recent three ODIs in a shorter timeframe.
But in an age where the hit-and-giggle Twenty20 format has become an irresistible fiscal driver, Kallis fears the Test calendar is suffering in the sport's lust for cash.
"Perhaps we could have played one T20 rather than two and moved the (three) one-dayers closer together," he told a South African newspaper.
"If Test cricket is being compromised in any way, then I am dead against it.
"Everything comes from Test cricket, all the other formats of the game and the reputations that players gain, it all comes from playing - or aspiring to play - Test cricket.
"We know that as players, we know how the game works."
Kallis is on the verge of a special milestone in the first Test starting tomorrow at Newlands. The world-class allrounder, who has 11,947 Test runs at a remarkable average of 57.44, will surpass Lara (11,953) on the runscoring list with a pair of boundaries.
