acti n replay

32 TIMES SPORT

NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT

(MATCHES FINISHING INSIDE THREE
DAYS). TO HELL WITH THE FIVE DAYS.
Ravi Shastri,
TEAM INDIA DIRECTOR DEFENDS INDIAS TACTICS OF PLAYING ON TURNERS

THE TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2015

LOOKING BACK AT 2015

KEY NUMBERS OF 2015

CRICKET

PASSING OF
THE BATON
Partha.Bhaduri@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: The biggest Indian cricket news

in 2015 all developed off the field, either in
stifling press conferences conducted by retired
judges or from closed-door courtroom intrigues. Hushed confabulations among men in
suits followed raucous open-forum attacks
across Parliament to press club. A Test match
was conducted by a legal doyen. A state government head was sued by a Union minister. Two
leading IPL teams were given marching orders.
The game had a rough time, perhaps its
roughest since the match-fixing scandal broke
at the turn of the millennium. This was Indian
crickets year of being loud, often ugly loud.
Of being in-your-face, pummelled and torn by
forces alternately hostile and hospitable, depending on which version was loudest on the
day. In keeping with the tenor, a piercing revolution took place on the field too. Virat Kohli,
he of the brash manner, persuasive talk and
fierce combat-readiness, discovered winning
ways as Test captain. Kohli left us all breathless with his energy, impressed with his enterprise and bemused at his audacity.
The only person who was quiet, even
when he spoke at length, was MS Dhoni. He
seemed out of sync and raged silently

THIS YEAR KOHLI SOUGHT TO WIN

AT ALL COST. IN FUTURE, HE MAY
COME ACROSS A LINE HE MUST
NOT CROSS. ITS BEST IF KOHLI
IDENTIFIES THAT LINE NOW, WHILE
DHONI IS STILL AROUND TO TEMPER
YOUNG STEEL.
against the biggest scourge of every successful sportsman a slow crawl to athletic
obscurity as body ages and the mind tires.
The limited-overs skipper is still around, and
may be so for a while, but in 2015, for the first
time since 2007, MS Dhoni offered glimpses
of leading on reputation a euphemism for
having ceased to be relevant.
Interestingly, he relinquished captaincy in
the longer format first, instead of letting the
hungry, young leader test the waters in limitedovers cricket as is the norm.
In spite of a good World Cup this year in
which Dhoni orchestrated seven straight wins
before India fell to the eventual champions
Test cricket hogged headlines because Kohlis
push for results made it unpredictable, watchable, controversial and often deliciously debatable. Dhoni didnt win a single ODI series or
tournament as India lost to Bangladesh away
and to South Africa at home, but more lasting
than the immediate result was the aftertaste
of an ODI stratagem which has run its course.
Dhoni was silent even when, just before the
year broke, he relinquished the Test captaincy
in Melbourne in typically obtuse fashion, talking about everything from PETA to pace bowlers except the one thing on his mind. The indications had arrived a few weeks before, of
course, when in his absence Kohli oh-so-nearly orchestrated a foolhardy, bravura Indian
performance in Adelaide, talking up in the
company of supportive team director Ravi
Shastri a new-found willingness to risk defeat for victory, to punt on pace and wickettaking prowess, to attack relentlessly with the
bat even when faced with a logically insurmountable target.

SOAP
OPERA
YEAR
AB. Ashwin. Pink Ball.
Turners. Abuse. Doping.
Retirements. Gaurav
Gupta chronicles the
year that was.

The young, impetuous Virat Kohli

slowly evolved as a captain even
as MS Captain Cool Dhoni showed
signs of not being his usual self.
Team India responded to the
ebullience of Kohli in Tests as
winning was all that mattered

Not just athletics, even cricket faced a dope

crisis as Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah and
Sri Lankas keeper-batsman Kusal Perera
faced the prospect of a ban after testing
positive for a prohibited substance. Shah
flunked a dope test conducted in November
during the ODIs against England, while Perera
failed an out-of-competition test in October.

Ending the N Srinivasan era in

Indian cricket, the Supreme Court
ruled that the Tamil Nadu
strongman could not stay on as
BCCI president as long as he was
the Chennai Super Kings owner. The
SC-appointed Lodha Commission
then suspended CSK and Rajasthan
Royals for two years from the IPL
after their owners were found
indulging in betting. A rattled BCCI
replaced them with new teams
based out of Pune and Rajkot for
two years. Led by a new president,
Shashank Manohar, the board
introduced a slew of reforms to
check conflict of interest.

Number of catches taken by

Indias Ajinkya Rahane in the
Galle Test vs Sri Lanka in
August to set a world record
for most catches by a fielder in Tests.

16
31
62
1474
2633

Number of balls taken by

South African, Ab de
Villiers during his 149 off
44 balls vs West Indies at
Johannesburg on January 18, 2015. It
was the fastest 50 in ODIs.
Number of balls taken by
Ab de Villiers to score his
hundred during the above
knock, the fastest in ODIs.
Number of wickets
captured by R Ashwin @
17.20 in nine Tests.

Number of
runs scored
by Aussie
Test skipper
Steve Smith in 13 Tests @ 73.70, the
most by any player this year.
Number of
runs scored
by Kane
Williamson
at an average of 65.82 in 45 innings (38
matches) - the most this year by a
batsman in International Cricket.
Rajesh Kumar

NEWSMAKERS
VALEDICTIONS
Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan bid
cricket goodbye this year as did Lankan
stalwarts Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela
Jayawardene. Aussie boys Mitchell Johnson
and Michael Clarke too called it quits.

DAY-NIGHT TEST
History was created on Nov 27, 2015 as
day-night Test cricket made its debut
when Australia and New Zealand played
the third Test at Adelaide under lights with
a pink ball. With the crowds lapping it up,
the experiment was a raging success.

TOP 5 PERFORMERS
AB DE VILLIERS
KOHLI
LOSES IT

South Africas ODI captain scaled new

heights this year. De Villiers blasted
the fastest-ever hundred, off merely
31 balls, against the West Indies in
January. A month later in the World
Cup, he went one better by
smashing the fastest 150 too, off just
64 balls, against the same team. In
India, he scored three tons in five ODIs.

Virat Kohli has

been known to blow
his top in the past, but
this one took the cake.
In a case of mistaken
identity, the Test skipper
hurled abuses at a
journalist in Perth
during the World Cup.
To make it worse,
Kohli didnt even
apologize upon
realising his
mistake. The
BCCIs reaction to the
fiasco too was feeble.

SRINI-THAKUR SPAT
BCCI secretary Anurag
Thakur was left red-faced
after a picture of him with
alleged bookie Karan Gilhotra
appeared in the media. The ICC quizzed
him. Sensing that the controversy was
triggered by Srinivasan, Thakur hit back
and asked the then ICC chairman to share
details of the bookies with his relatives.

ISHANTS UGLY SIDE

During Indias tour to Sri Lanka,
pacer Ishant Sharma had a run-in
with Lankan seamer Dhammika
Prasad, both on the field and
outside the hosts dressing room.
The pacer copped a one-Test ban.

R ASHWIN
Enjoying the form
of his life, the offspinner finished as the
top wicket-taker with 62
scalps in just nine Tests. He
was Man of the Series
against Lanka and
South Africa.

THE END FOR KP

In his bid to make a
comeback to the
England team, Kevin
Pietersen even gave up
a lucrative contract in
the IPL. However,
despite smashing an
unbeaten 326 for Surrey,
KPs hopes went up in
smoke after his former
teammate Andrew
Strauss, now England
team director, made it
clear to him that trust
issues meant he
couldnt play for the
national team ever
again.

AJINKYA RAHANE
Indias best batsman
across conditions. He
batted well at the SCG to
save the game and
scored a match-winning
ton in Sri Lanka. As the
year drew to a close,
he scored twin tons
at Kotla to correct
his record at home.

STUART
BROAD

GAMBHIR-TIWARY SPAT AT THE KOTLA GETS UGLY

CSK, RR SUSPENDED,
SRINI ERA ENDS

Number of successive
hundreds hit by Kumar
Sangakkara during the
2015 World Cup to become
the first batsman and the only one in
the history of ODIs to do so.

Stuart
Broads
careeer-best
bowling
figures for England in Australias first
innings total of 60 at Nottingham in
August this year.

It all ended in defeat, of course, but for

the first time in a long while in Indian cricket, a defeat didnt matter the need for injecting fresh ideas into a jaded outfit was a
theme recognized all the way from the January Sydney Test, which followed after Melbourne, right up to December in Delhi and
the series win against South Africa. A defeat
in Galle, somewhat similar to Adelaide in
the frittering away of a memorable opportunity, was followed by a turnaround, a first
Test series win in Sri Lanka in 22 years.
Kohli had shown he could be flexible enough
to recognize the flaws and chip away at the
shortcomings, all the while relentlessly enforcing his core beliefs on the team.
The year began with Kohli betraying his
nerves, changing bowlers after every over in
a session at the SCG, to adroitly applying the
slow choke on opposition batsmen at the SSC
and Kotla with an impressive interplay of attacking fields and penetrative spin options. He
was patience personified when there were
partnerships and a dynamo when it came to
reviving flagging team spirit.
This willingness to evolve offered reassurance that Kohli was man for the job, though
his strengths were unfairly contrasted with
MS Dhonis failings, including a new-found
tendency to be unsteady in the face of criticism. The team, after all, was no longer always
MSDs to command.
Wins and losses aside, Dhoni also failed
to recognize that an opportunity for communication, or connection, passed him by this
year, maybe both within the dressing room
and outside. His general reticence, the longwinded explanations which said a lot but revealed nothing, the disdain for debate, all went
against him. There was a public run-down for
his pacers when the same personnel were being taught to bring a champion mentality to
the table in the other format.
An ugly jibe at Ajinkya Rahane, who was
Indias best Test batsman this year across conditions, was followed by Rahanes appointment
to ODI captaincy for a tour of Zimbabwe. An
uncharacteristic barge into an opposition
bowler, a tendency to offer to resign after every big loss... these were all signs that Dhoni
wasnt his usual self.
An impetuous Kohli wasnt immune to
skirmishes with the mass media either witness his heated defence of the doctoring of
pitches for the SA home series, or the run-in
with a journo during the World Cup but on
most cricket matters he was forthright and
earnest, and by being a bowlers captain unlike
Dhoni, he presided over an important turnaround in Indias approach to Test cricket. And,
of course, positioned himself squarely as Indias man of the moment to lead across formats, if the selectors are so inclined.
Some cricketing empires fell this year but
strangely, it may be time to celebrate this temporary clash of philosophies in the dressing
room. To suggest differences may lead to discord is to do both mens leadership capabilities
a disservice Kohli would do well to borrow
some of Dhonis still-famed equanimity even
as the more experienced campaigner seeks
to pull a few remaining rabbits out of the
hat, preferably in the upcoming World T20.
This year, Kohli sought to win at all
cost. In future, he may come across a line
he must not cross. Its best if Kohli identifies that line now, while Dhoni is still around
to temper young steel.

YASIR, PERERA FLUNK DOPE TEST

1
4
8
8/15

Kane Williamson remains

the only batsman to have
managed 1,000 runs or
more in both formats of
the game this year.

A heated exchange between Gautam Gambhir and Manoj Tiwary during a Delhi versus
Bengal Ranji match at Kotla got uglier after the latter accused the Delhi skipper of insulting
the Bengali community and his parents. Gambhir, who has lost his cool on the field in the
past too, denied the charge furiously. The duos relationship had turned sour ever since
Tiwary vented his frustration on Twitter in 2013 when Knight Riders, captained by Gambhir,
left him out of the playing XI for a game against Mumbai Indians.

TURF WARS

After South Africa amassed

438 in the fifth ODI at
Wankhede, Team India
director Ravi Shastri
allegedly abused curator
Sudhir Naik. Looking to
stump SA in Tests, India laid
out vicious turners. India
won the series 3-0. But the
euphoria was soured after
the ICC deemed the Jamtha
pitch poor.

LLONG IS WRONG

The first-ever D/N Test

between Australia and New
Zealand was marred by
controversy when third
umpire Nigel Llong handed
Nathan Llyon a reprieve
despite the batsman clearly
edging the ball. Llong relied
on hot-spot, which was
inconclusive while the
snickometer showed an
edge. The decision altered
the fortunes of the game.

INDO-PAK DEADLOCK
Pakistan Cricket Board
(PCB) chairman Shaharyar
Khan kept trying to revive
cricketing relations with
India, but it fell on deaf ears
as the BCCI cited lack of
government approval. His
attempt to meet BCCI chief
Shashank Manohar in
Mumbai too was thwarted
by the Shiv Sena who
staged a protest.

On Aug 6, the world

witnessed one of the
years best fast-bowling
spells when Stuart Broad
took an astonishing 8/15 to
destroy Australia for 60 at
Nottingham. With 51
wickets in 13 Tests, Broad
was the second highest
wicket-taker.

KANE
WILLIAMSON
Kane Williamson
became the first New
Zealander since the
ratings were introduced to top the
ICC rankings for best Test batsman,
overtaking the likes of AB de Villiers
and Joe Root. The 25-year-old cracked
1172 runs at a Bradmanesque 90.15,
including five centuries in Tests, and
1317 runs @ 57.26 in ODIs.