Nigh on 300 test wickets! I don't understand why Kallis isn't exalted as a legend, his stats more than back it up imo. Is it because he wasn't as "exciting" to watch as Botham et al?
Partly because he was bloody boring, yep. Batting I think he's well recognised, but he really didn't bowl that much and would never have got picked as a bowler alone. 290 wickets yes, but in almost 170 tests and only 5 fivefers. Imagine how many someone like Botham would have taken if he'd played that many!
By the way, hope you didn't think my use of "exciting" was sarcasm, Kallis was a bit boring! But he got results! You do make a fair point about number of games played, but surely that's part of the charm? He was good enough to play 160odd tests and hit a century in his last test, Botham's (although great and in my opinion the better all rounder) powers waned a bit before his 100th test and he didn't hit over 51 after '86 or more than 3 wickets after '87.