Jacques Kallis – one of the greatest players to ever grace the game of cricket – announced his retirement on Wednesday, thus bringing the curtain down on a long and illustrious career.

In tribute to the great South African all-rounder, Sport360 have created this timeline highlighting the biggest milestones in Kallis' career.

1975

Born on October 16 at Pinelands, Cape Town.

1995
December 14: Makes his Test debut against England at Durban.

1996
January: Makes his ODI debut against England at Cape Town.

1997
December: Scores his first Test century, a gutsy 101 against Australia saves South Africa in Melbourne.

1998
January: Scores his first ODI ton, 111 against New Zealand at the WACA.
November: Picks up five wickets to help beat West Indies in final of the International Cup, South Africa’s first ICC trophy.

1999
January: Becomes only the second South African to score a century (110), fifty (88) and take five wickets (5-90) in a Test. SA won the match against West Indies by 149 runs.

2000
July-August: Voted Man of the Series in South Africa’s success in India.

2001
November: Sachin Tendulkar is his 100th scalp and becomes the eighth cricketer to take that many wickets and score 3,000 runs in Tests.

2003-2004
December-March: Scores back-to-back centuries in five Tests (158, 177, 130no, 130no, 150no), a record which places him below only the great Don Bradman. Becomes fourth player to achieve the double of 5,000 runs and 150 Test wickets.

2005
March: Logs the fastest fifty in Tests, off 24 balls, against Zimbabwe in Newlands.
October: Bags the ICC Test Player of the Year award and jointly shares the Player of the Year with Andrew Flintoff.

2006
May: Surpasses Garry Sobers’ record of 8,032 Test runs in the match against New Zealand at Johannesburg. He also becomes only the second player, after Sobers, to achieve the double of 8,000 runs and 200 wickets.

2007
April-March: Is South Africa’s leading scorer in World Cup with 485 runs. 

2009
January-February: Goes past the 10,000- run mark in Tests and ODIs in the twin-series against Australia. He reaches the ODI landmark first in Sydney, and then the Test milestone at the Wanderers.

2012
January: Becomes the first batsman to score 150-plus in his 150th Test. He goes on to score 224, his second double-century and his highest score in Tests.

2013
December: Retires from Tests.

2014
July: Retires from ODIs and T20Is.