Kallis shaves off half his beard! Read on to know why?

 

Former South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis has taken up a unique challenge to collect money to save rhinos in South Africa. In his own unique take of ‘No Shave November’, Kallis has shaved half of his facial hair in order to raise awareness. The former Kolkata Knight Riders coach shared pictures of himself on Twitter and stated that this was going to be his look for the next few days.

The Proteas player, who has been actively involved with the protection of rhinos along with English batter Kevin Pietersen, was one of the best all-rounders of the modern generation, with 13289 Test runs and 11579 ODI runs. He also scalped 292 wickets in the longest format and picked up another 273 wickets in 50-over cricket to become the only player from his nation to score 10,000 runs in both formats as well as pick 250 wickets in Test and ODIs. He has 45 Test tons to his name and has the second-highest number of centuries in the format – behind Sachin Tendulkar’s tally of 51 hundreds.

Kallis, who made his international debut in 1995, led the South African team to the ICC Champions Trophy title in 1998, in which he won the ‘Player of the Series” award. He was also named as the “ICC ODI player of the Year” in 2005, and got the “ICC Test player of the Year” title two years later. He was selected as the “Wisden Cricketer of the Year” in 2013.

Kallis announced his retirement from the sport in 2014, and last played and ODI game against Sri Lanka in what was an emotional farewell game. Howeer, the right-hander continued playing T20 cricket, and played his last T20 game last year, when he scored an unbeaten 90 playing for Royals against Palace Diamonds in the St Moritz Ice Cricket event that also featured players like Shahid Afridi and Virender Sehwag.

He was the coach of Indian Premier League team KKR till this season. He has now been replaced, with Brendon McCullum taking over the role for 2020.