(Belated) Season’s Greetings: World Cricket: Part I—The Year Gone By

Note to the Reader:

Dear Reader,

Firstly, thanks for your time! This is the first part of a two part Article in which I look at the past year in World Cricket and then give my humble opinion regarding what we may expect out of 2009. Wishing you a happy New Year, and happy reading!

Yours truly,

Anon Payn

What a year it has been for International cricket! It began with a bang at Sydney, what with The Monkey Gate scandal ushering in the year, and it ended with South Africa clinching the Boxing Day Test, and in the process showing Australia it’s first series defeat at home in over sixteen years!

Indeed, Australia has been the centre of a lot of attention this year. But unlike the last decade and a half, the last three hundred and sixty five days have seen the men from Down Under getting accused of bringing the game to disrepute, lose the final edition of the iconic one day tri series, not win a single Test in India, and finally getting humbled in their own back yard.

Very few silver linings in this dark cloud for the Aussies. The brightest, of course has been their opener, no not Hayden this time, but Katich! The Queensland batsman has cemented his place in the side, while watching his more celebrated opening partner go from bad to worse.

The New South Wales captain amassed a massive 1021 runs in just eleven matches, becoming the first Australian opener to carry his bat through an innings in over a decade along the way! He complemented his runs with four fine centuries, three of them away from home!

In contrast, partner Matthew Hayden personified the woes of Australian cricket in general, a ageing machine, finding in tough to keep up with the new challenges being thrown at it. Averaging a miserly 32, Hayden is now fighting to keep his place in the side, far from being one of the few, apart from Warne, McGrath and Gilchrist, who could be guaranteed a place in the final eleven a few years ago!

Ponting had a mixed year, as did most of the Australian bowling unit. Brett Lee looked awfully plain for most of the year, and injuries to Stuart Clark didn’t help matters for the Baggy Greens. The stand out performer in that department, however, has to be Mitchell Johnson!

The kid’s been a revelation. The second highest wicket taker in the year gone by, he has come a long way since his debut season more than two years ago. While being on the expensive side of the 20s, his wickets have been vital for Australia. Apart from regularly picking up top batsmen like Tendulkar, Sehwag, Kallis and Smith, his ability to swing the ball marks him apart from all the other Australian quickies. His slower ball is fast gaining notoriety among contemporary batsmen. Certainly one of the future stars.

Australia’s biggest nemesis this season, for all the right and wrong reasons, was India. What began with “Monkey Gate” ended, quite dramatically, in a Test win for India at Nagpur.

The Indo-Oz rivalry got a huge fillip when things got a bit too personal between Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds during India’s first innings batting display at Sydney last January.

No points for guess who came out of it the winner, Harbhajan Singh, smashing 410 runs, including four half centuries against the reining world champs, in five Test matches apart from being the third highest wicket taker in the world! Meanwhile Symonds served suspension for having fun when he ought not to be! Bad boy Symmo.

Harbhajan’s all-round efforts were nicely complimented by all his colleagues, the stand outs being Zaheer Khan and Gautam Gambhir.

He may not have taken truck loads of wickets in 2008, but he used his precision and swing to deadly effect against the visiting teams. His final inning spell at Mohali will go down in the books as one of the finest ever. Pace bowling on sub continental wickets can be akin to slow torture, but Zak is fast gaining credentials as probably the best pace-man in the world.

Left out of the Test series in Australia, Gambhir made amends with fine knocks in the following One Day Tri Series, and immediately replaced Wasim Jaffer for the Tests in Sri Lanka. While India lost the series 2-1, Gambhir stood out as the knight in shining armour for the team. An opening partner of Virender Sehwag had been found!

He cemented his place in the side with a fine double century against the Aussies at his home ground, The Feroz Shah Kotla, New Delhi. His opening partner, Virender Sehwag, who also wasn’t assured a place in the side at the start of the year (he was dropped for the first two Tests Down Under) came back with a bang. His innings at Adelaide, Chennai, Galle, and again at Chennai, yet again proved why he is the most dangerous top order batsman since Sir Viv Richards.

Sachin Tendulkar, the cricketing God of India, also had reason to celebrate. Smashing match winning hundreds became second nature to the master blaster yet again, after quite some time, as He guided India with pomp and élan to victories in the CB Series Finals, the Nagpur Test and the famous Chennai Test. There were other valuable innings too, like the Perth, Adelaide, Bangalore, Mohali and Delhi Tests, which contributed to his 1063 runs in the calendar year. He is back!

M.S. Dhoni had reason to celebrate. As he took over from Anil Kumble, extending his streak to five consecutive victories in his first five Tests in charge, the Jharkand lad confirmed that India was indeed on its way to greatness.

No wonder then, that Mahi was the costliest player in the draft pick for the IPL, the event that will no doubt go down as a defining moment in not just cricket, but sporting history.

Yes indeedy, India’s biggest claim to fame, the Indian Premier League, the world’s most hyped T20 cricket league played out its first season under a dizzying shroud of glamour and chutzpah.

With Mallya, Ambani, Shar Rukh Khan being team owners, and players like Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Brendon McCullum, Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya, all playing in one tournament, it was bound to be a hit. The crowds flocked in, Shane Warne stood tall among his peers as captain of the champion side, and best of all, young local talent got a stage to impress, and impress it did!

If there was any blemish in an otherwise perfect year it would have to be the twin losses to Sri Lanka, the Asia Cup and the Test series in SL.

Lanka clearly were the only team who got the better of India in ’08. And the ace up their sleeves which India never came to terms with was none other than Ajanta Mendis! The “freak” from the Emerald Isle wove a web around all the Indian batsmen, famed for their mastery over his art, and drove Sri Lanka to lift the Asia Cup and get one over the neighbours.

If having a bowler with his average in the early teens wasn’t enough, the likes of Sanath Jayasuriya, Muthiah Muralitharan, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayewardene also decided to cash in, as the Lankans wreaked havoc wherever they went!

But without doubt, the star of the show, and probably the new number one team, in the very near future, was South Africa.

The Afrikaans were at the receiving end of a devastating triple hundred in Chennai early March, but the fact that they still managed to draw the series in India showed that this team had fight. And fight they did! Series wins in England and Australia followed as the Proteas come to the threshold of World Supremacy.

Headed by the cavalier Graeme Smith, the highest run getter of 2008, over 1600 of them, the team has been galvanized into one unstoppable unit.

Smith undoubtedly has been the best batsman in the world this past year. Knocks like his 4^th inning154 against England, and 108 at Perth saw South Africa pull off wins from unimaginable positions, reminding avid fans of the achievements of a team headed by a certain Steve Waugh.

But SA’s 11-2 win loss record was not simply down to this one man. No, far from it! Dale Steyn took the world by storm this year. Complimenting his captain as the highest wicket taker in the world, Steyn was the match winner in Australia.

Contributions from Hashim Amla, A.B. De Villiers, Morne Morkel and Makhaya Ntini meant that even an off season for Jaques Kallis couldn’t put the team down.

Ending the year with a Boxing Day Test victory can hardly be bettered, but SA have to be odds on favourites to finish ’09 ranked number one! Roll on the New Year!