Kallis quits as vice-captain

Jacques Kallis' omission from the South African squad for the Twenty20 World Championship has prompted him to quit as vice-captain of the team. Kallis was non-committal about his future as an international player, though he ruled out the possibility of an early retirement.

"I have resigned as vice-captain and I'm considering my options with regard to the rest of my career," Kallis said. "I have been thinking long and hard over the weekend and there is still a lot of emotion involved because I am extremely disappointed. I was very excited about the tournament and hoping to make a huge contribution.

"I feel I have a lot of good cricket left and my best years might even be ahead of me. Ideally I would like to play many more years for my country but this weekend caused me to question my future for the first time."

Joubert Strydom, the newly-appointed chairman of selectors, said that Kallis was merely rested for the tournament, keeping in mind South Africa's packed schedule ahead. With quite a few young players competing for places in the top order, Strydom felt it would be better to preserve Kallis for Tests and one-dayers and not risk him in the Twenty20 format.

Gerald Majola, the Cricket South Africa (CSA) chief executive, expressed disappointment over Kallis' statement after he received a call from Kallis. "I said we all understood his disappointment, and appealed to him not to resign while in an emotional state but to rather meet with CSA to discuss the matter fully so that we could deal with all the issues at hand. It is most disappointing therefore that Jacques took a unilateral decision after speaking to me to publicly announce his resignation as vice-captain.

"This is regrettable, particularly in the light that CSA and the players' trade union, the South African Cricketers Association (SACA), have recently signed a ground-breaking memorandum of understanding which outlines the way in which we will deal with each other for mutual benefit. Jacques is employed by CSA, and we expected him at least to sit down at a meeting and go through the matter before he made his own decision to make a public announcement."

Majola hoped Kallis would reconsider his decision and added that CSA would attempt a meeting with him to discuss the matter in further detail.