Johannesburg, July 23 (ANI): Veteran Proteas all-rounder Jacques Kallis admits that the tetchiness which sometimes accompanied their Test series success in the West Indies played a role in his re-awakening as a genuine "head-hunter" with the ball.
Speaking exclusively to Sport24 after this week's SA Cricket Awards 2010 banquet here, Kallis admitted the various aspects of "niggle" had helped fire him up.
Kallis said: "Yes, they did. I don't deny I enjoy a bit of spice in a game: I've felt over the years the game has increasingly lost that with (the advent of) match referees and so on.
"I'm all for playing the game in the correct spirit, within certain boundaries, and always have been. But I also feel cricket's lost a little edge because you don't have that niggle any more.
"So it's nice to play one or two games where is some obvious (semblance) of that, while within the laws."
Kallis turns 35 in mid-October, yet in the Caribbean he reminded many observers of his formative first-class days with Western Province, where he was considered one of the fastest and most hostile bowlers on the domestic scene - sometimes even being given new-ball duty.
There were occasions in the West Indies where he bowled some fearsome bouncers, despite the mostly benign tracks, and sometimes also nudged the 150km/h mark in speed-gun terms.
"Generally my role in recent years has been to hold up an end and dry up the runs while others do the (striking)," Kallis explained. (ANI)
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