With another great year of cricketing coming to an end which saw great happenings.
Here is a small look back.
This year saw Kallis blasting his way to glory with more then 1000 runs in test cricket,
feat only neared by Sachin Tendulkar. (This year was not all that great to Sachin anyway).
Vass showing the dominance of the fast bowlers in the sub continent with a scintillating
display of fast bowling in the LG Cup against Zimbabwe (his 7 wkt haul ).
Brain Lara made a great come back into test cricket blasting his way in Sri Lanka (though a sad
note for him to end the year with a broken elbow). Standing tall when the West Indies are going through
a worst ever patch in their cricketing history.
Steve Waugh led Australia to some memorable victories (including retaining the Ashes again) showing why Australians are termed as the best team in the world. The tour to India was only the bad patch of the year for them.
The all rounder’s of the world (Crains, Klusner, Kallis) stuck on to their best and proved beyond
doubt time and again why they are the best when it comes to reliability.
As far as India is concerned it was lease of fresh new talent. India’s greatest find was SS Das and
Sehwag who showed that temperament required for test cricket they are undoubtedly the future hope
of Indian cricket. Same time the seniors like Dravid (over all) and Gangully (in test cricket) were major
let down. This year too as usual India relied on Sachin to bail them out most of the times.
Nasser Hussain was what Steve Waugh was to Australia but, alas! he didn’t have a Australian team to
back him up for his efforts. With some exceptions like Treskotic and Butcher there was no consistency from
others. Though they did well to win their series against Pakistan.
Zimbabwe the team with lot of sparkles but no fireworks. With some exception like the Flower brothers
and players like Wishart and Streak in patches there were no big surprises.
Pakistan had a mixed year with their loss to England at home. They did a come of sorts winning the
Sharjah cup. Saeed Anwar had rather subdued year while Imzi and Yohanan proved their star batsman in both
the versions of the game. Never say die Akram made a scintillating comeback with his great bowling
attack at Sharjah. (well Pakistan still figuring who their captain is till the end)
Bangladesh is making use to the fullest of they being awarded the test status playing the best teams in
the world. Good preparation for the next world cup.
But what I think was the best thing was Super Selector which induced that renewed our interest in matches in which India didn’t figure in.
Well, These were my thoughts would be great to hear yours. I might have missed a lot of things (afterall it was a great year).
Here’s wishing cricket one more glorious year and many years to come!!!
Cheers!!!
PS: I have deliberately left out all the controversies which I think was not worth mentioning.