Queen Laura vs King Kallis: Is Wolvaardt already the Proteas' GOAT?

Jacques Henry Kallis has always laid the biggest claim to GOAT - Greatest of All Time - status in South African cricket. Kallis’ exploits stretch the discussion even further to him arguably being the world’s greatest cricketer ever due to the incredible numbers that he achieved over the course of his illustrious career. 

It is hard to argue with 13 289 Test runs, average of 55.37, and 292 Test wickets. It's almost the equivalent of India’s legends Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan’s numbers morphed into one.

Add a further 11 579 and 279 ODI runs and wickets with the T20I small change of 666 runs and 12 wickets, and you have yourself one helluva cricketer. 

However, the question remains, and in some circles, it would be considered blasphemy considering we are fellow alumni of Wynberg Boys’ High School, but did Kallis move the needle? 

Is there an iconic series that belonged solely to Kallis? Did he deliver a match-winning performance in a crunch ICC World Cup clash? And most importantly, for me at least, did he make boys and girls the world over pick up a cricket bat and start playing the game we love? 

Kallis’ supporters will point to his five-wicket haul in the final of the Wills International Cup - the precursor to the ICC Champions Trophy - that resulted in what is still the Proteas’ Men’s team only major limited-overs competition success. 

I, though, feel that South Africans are currently basking in the glory of their greatest ever cricketer - Laura Wolvaardt. 

The Proteas Women’s captain is quite the phenomenon. Due to women’s cricket not playing a high volume of Tests, Wolvaardt has only featured in four multi-day matches over the past decade since her international debut back in 2016. 

This has not prevented Wolvaardt from joining an elite list of only three women batters to have scored centuries across all three formats of the game. Six men have achieved this feat, but Kallis is not among them. 

The former Parklands College head-girl is stacking up records at a staggering rate. Despite still only 26, she is already the Proteas Women’s leading run-scorer across formats with 5222 at an average of 50.69 in ODIs, 2088 at 34.80 in T20Is and a further 255 in Tests, for a sum total of 7565 international runs.  

That’s already 1881 runs more than her nearest challenger, former captain Mignon du Preez, who accumulated her tally of 5684 in 269 matches - 63 greater than Wolvaardt’s 206 games. 

She also is the youngest women’s batter ever to pass 5000 ODI runs. 

These heavyweight figures become substantially better at major ICC events, and it is here where Wolvaardt’s legacy is defined and separates her from the contenders. 

Her recent 571 runs - the most by any batter in a women's ODI World Cup edition - propelled Wolvaardt’s overall World Cup tally to 1328 runs, which is the second highest in the history of the Women’s World Cup after New Zealand’s Debbie Hockley's 1501.

Equally, her epic 169 in the semi-final victory over England followed by the majestic 101 in the final against India, gave her a record tally of 336 runs in World Cup knockouts. 

She also struck 66, whilst still an 18-year-old teenager in the 2017 Bristol semi-final, with her only knockout failure being the duck against self-same England five years later in Christchurch.

In four World Cup knockout matches, including three semi-finals and a final, Wolvaardt has scored 404 runs at an average of 101. It is these feats that will be remembered for years to come and will provide the inspiration for a whole new generation of cricketers. 

Kallis, meanwhile, accumulated 1148 runs at an average of 45.92 across five World Cup tournaments. But a meagre 105 of those runs were scored in three knockout matches, ranging from two semi-finals (Edgbaston 1999 and St Lucia 2007) and one quarter-final (Mirpur 2011).  

Wolvaardt’s T20 World Cup numbers are also hugely impressive. Being technically correct, and blessed with an equally exquisite cover drive, she struggled initially to adapt to the demands of the shortest format just like Kallis. 

But after floating around the batting order in her first couple of tournaments, Wolvaardt worked extensively on her power game to increase her scoring options. She has since topped the run-scorers charts in the last two editions of the competition - South Africa 2023 and UAE 2024 - and boasts the highest average of 43.30 of batters who have scored more than 500 T20 World Cup runs. 

Her big match temperament - BMT - was again on full display in the knockout matches:

1. 41 off 22 balls (SR 147.22) vs Australia (2020, SF, Sydney) 
2. 53 off 44 balls (SR 120.45) vs England (2023, SF, Newlands) 
3. 61 off 48 balls (SR 127.08) vs Australia (2023, Final, Newlands)
4. 42 off 37 balls (SR 113.51) vs England (2024, SF, Dubai)
5. 33 off 27 balls (SR 122.02) vs New Zealand (2024, Final, Dubai).

Kallis was only able to drive the Proteas Men’s team to one T20 World Cup semi-final, scoring 64 off 54 balls, in a losing cause against Pakistan at Trent Bridge in 2009.

Furthermore, Wolvaardt has embraced the responsibility of leading the Proteas for the past 18 months, smashing glass ceilings in the process, by leading her team to successive ICC Women’s T20 World Cup (Dubai 2024) and ICC World Cup (Navi Mumbai 2025) finals. 

Kallis, meanwhile, was always a reluctant leader. He shunned captaincy and only led the Proteas in a couple of matches when it was deemed absolutely necessary. 

The essence of this discussion was never to diminish Kallis’ status in South African cricket, but rather to fully place Wolvaardt’s magnificence into perspective.

I’ll leave it to you to decide whether it’s Queen Laura or King Kallis. I know who my GOAT is.