Rohan Kanhai was a superb batsman, but let's put it this way.
Kanhai played Test cricket for the West Indies from 1957 to 1974 and averaged 47.53.
Garry Sobers was a year younger, and played Test cricket for the West Indies from 1955 to 1974 and averaged 57.78. Plus he took 235 wickets in 93 Tests.
They actually retired in the same Test against England at Port of Spain.
Graeme Pollock was 8 years younger, but on a different level. He played 21 official Tests, averaging a gigantic 60.97 equivalent to around 77 now. But his greatness was shown by how he was still churning out unofficial Apartheid Era Test centuries into the mid-1980's against the likes of Sylvester Clarke and Terry Alderman.
By the way, I strongly encourage anyone to hop onto Cricinfo Archive and look up the Test series played in England in the summer of 1970 and in Australia in the summer of 1971-72.
South Africa were due to tour both times but could not because of Apartheid. They were replaced by Rest of the World teams in which we saw Pollock and Kanhai play as team-mates - unthinkable in South Africa itself.
Some youngster will now try to tell me Rest of the World is not a country so the matches weren't as intense as playing against a real country like Sri Lanka. But these weren't fake Tests like the 2000-era Rest of the World one - these were the only Tests of the summer, and against incredibly strong opposition. And, of course, the West Indies is not a country either!
Anyway, if I'm honest, Pollock and Kanhai were pretty much of a muchness both summers - which is a huge compliment to Kanhai, because I don't think anyone truly places him in the Pantheon of great batsmen, whereas pretty much everyone has Pollock at the Top Table with Bradman, Sobers and Barry and Viv Richards.
