Re: Take away Tendulkar, give me Jacques Kallis
The only other SA which comes to mind, even though he didn't play test cricket but would have been either on par with Kallis or even better was mike proctor. what a batsmen and bowler he was.
Mike Procter was good, I will agree. Maybe a better all-rounder would be Clive Rice. Rice was an extremely aggressive and good captain as well. Rice three times competed with the best all-rounders in a competion to determine the best all-rounder and won each time. Was in the 1970-1980's and I can remember one of the competitions were in India/Pakistan.
A very large number of excellent cricketers lost the chance to play international cricket during the sanction years. Ironically, it was during these years that the West-Indies were at their top. I have always wondered if they would have been as good if the South Africans were also playing Tests....