Kallis confident of flying high Down Under

Dubai: The maturing of Dale Steyn as his team's main strike bowler could be a decisive factor when South Africa tour Down Under in December, feels Jacques Kallis, a pillar of strength for the Proteas.

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"Dale has really made a difference to our bowling attack. With him and (Makhaya) Ntini sharing 40-45 overs between themselves in a day on the helpful tracks of Australia, I think our chances are as good as any," Kallis told Gulf News on the sidelines of the LG ICC Awards ceremony.

Kallis, who had a ball in the 2005 edition of the awards when he won the Test Cricketer of the Year and shared the overall Cricketer of the Year award with Andrew Flintoff, was once again on the nomination list to be the best in Tests.

Fresh guard

While the 'Mr Consistent' lost out to teammate Steyn this time, his performance during the season under review nevertheless earned him a berth in the 'Test Team of the Year.'

One of the senior pros of the team at 32, Kallis is extremely happy at the performance of his team since the beginning of the year. "We have played some fantastic cricket over a period of time and the fact that two nominations out of four for the top two ICC awards went to South Africans is a testimony to that," said Kallis.

An area where the Proteas have shown tremendous character in the past 12 months was in adapting themselves to the conditions in the sub-continent and tackling the spinners.

Waiting on the threshold of the 10,000 run-mark in both forms of cricket (9761 in Tests and 9609 in ODIs), Kallis is no mood to think about retirement yet. "I will continue as long as I am fit and my form allows me to," he signed off.

ICC Cricket awards 2008

• Cricketer of the Year: Shivnarine Chanderpaul (West Indies)
• Test Player of the Year: Dale Steyn (South Africa)
• ODI Player of the Year: Mahendra Singh Doni (India)
• Emerging Player of the Year: Ajantha Mendis (Sri Lanka)
• T20 international performance of the year: Yuvraj Singh (India)
• Associate Player of the Year: Ryan ten Doeschate (The Netherlands)
• Women's Cricketer of the Year: Charlotte Edwards (England)
• Umpire of the Year: Simon Taufel (Australia)
• Spirit of Cricket Award: Sri Lanka

TEAMS

ICC Test Team of the Year: Graeme Smith (RSA, capt), Virender Sehwag (IND), Mahela Jayawardene (SRI), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WIS), Kevin Pietersen (ENG), Jacques Kallis (RSA), Kumar Sangakkara (SRI, wkt), Brett Lee (AUS), Ryan Sidebottom (ENG), Dale Steyn (RSA), Muttiah Muralitharan (SRI). 12th man: Stuart Clark (AUS).

ICC ODI Team of the Year: Herschelle Gibbs (RSA), Sachin Tendulkar (IND), Ricky Ponting (AUS, capt), Younis Khan (PAK), Andrew Symonds (AUS), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (IND, wkt), Farveez Maharoof (SRI), Daniel Vettori (NZL), Brett Lee (AUS), Mitchell Johnson (AUS) and Nathan Bracken (AUS). 12th man: Salman Butt (PAK).