Cricket India More highs than lows

As the year draws to a close, the Indian team has just been guaranteed an extended stay at the top of the Test rankings table, with their closest challenger South Africa collapsing in a heap against England.

It is a development that might gladden hearts at first glance, but it's a dubious position to be in - to have to depend on other results going your way to maintain your rank. In 2009, India played just 6 Test matches, 3 early in the year against New Zealand and 3 late in the year against Sri Lanka. In between there were 31 ODIs and 10 T20 Internationals, along with the monster called IPL and its off-spring, the Champions League.

It was more than somewhat ironic therefore, when with such a preponderance of limited-overs cricket, the Test team was the one that shone the brightest by a distance.

In a year when India won an away series against New Zealand, a tri-series in Sri Lanka, a home series against Sri Lanka and four bilateral ODI series, the high point was quite definitely achieving the Number One ranking in Test cricket.

India firmly established that they have the best batting line-up in the business in Test matches, being far classier than Australia's, more intimidating than South Africa's and with just too much more statistical weightage than either England or Sri Lanka. Of the top five - Sehwag, Gambhir, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman - each one is capable of winning a match on his own and has done it numerous times. Following them are Yuvraj and Dhoni, and as far as support casts go, those two are a pretty darn good one to have for any team.

If India can get their bowling right in the next year, then they would be nigh unstoppable and would solidify their position at the top of the table. Of course, for that to happen, the BCCI has to schedule more Test matches, but with India's rise, the board has discovered that suddenly Tests are a marketable property and will therefore move and shake the cricketing world to ensure that more than the paltry few Tests that were scheduled are staged.

India did reach the summit in ODI rankings also this year, but in the tournaments where it mattered, the team fell short. The Champions Trophy was the biggest ODI tournament of the year, and India exited in the first round, while the biggest bilateral series was the one against Australia, which was also lost 4-2. That Australia beat India with an almost second-string side was all the more damning. Some people have sought to point out that the scoreline could have easily been reversed, but the fact that we lost 4-2 rather than won by the same margin is, if anything, a more pressing worry. Champion sides have the ability to close out matches, to lift their games at key moments, to recognize the inflexion points in a game and seize them, but India did the reverse and lost all the key moments. The Test side has shown the ability to stamp its authority on the opposition at the moments that matter, and if the ODI side wants a more consistent run at the top of the charts, then it must do the same.

India fared rather poorly in Twenty20 matches in the year, but that is not a cause for too much worry. Twenty20 depends much on chance, and the format is still nascent so who wins or loses has less to do with who has mastered the art of the shortest format better and more to do with who was more fortunate on the given day.

The noteworthy performances and events of the year were:

Test performance of the year

The Test performance of the year was a close run-thing between the dynamic Delhi duo of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag. Sehwag thrilled the senses, made us sit in awe and wonder, and nearly beat the Don by scoring an unprecedented third triple hundred, but for my money he had to give way to the fortress that Gautam Gambhir built out of patience and concentration in New Zealand.

Gambhir's match-saving century in the second Test against New Zealand early in the year was spread over 10 hours of fiercely determined batting, and the fact that it was on foreign shores while India was following-on, helped it pip Sehwag's magically manic 293 against Sri Lanka.

ODI performance of the year

This one was a no contest. Nothing else came even remotely close to Sachin Tendulkar's heroically tragic 175 against Australia. Those who have seen the Indian team struggle through the nineties were taken on a nostalgic and heart-breaking journey as once again Tendulkar showed us how he makes it so effortlessly possible to make it seem as if he is batting on a different pitch and facing a different attack than any of the other members on the ground - either in his team or the opposition's. All that could be said about the innings has been said here, so I will not repeat it.

Heart-warming event of the year

For much of last year, it seemed as if Rahul Dravid had gone on an absence without leave and sent in a pale imitation of himself to bat for India. He averaged a miserable 30.96 in Test matches for India in 2008, and it seemed a matter of time before he joined Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble in retirement. But Dravid reinvented himself, and how! He was back to his run-scoring best, averaging 83.00 in 2009 and firmly shutting the doubters and proving once and for all that form may be temporary but class is permanent.

Shame of the year

More than the Kotla's abysmal handling of a pitch, what was shameful was the reaction of some of the officials to the events that transpired. Chetan Chauhan, a former player himself, said that the Sri Lankans "chickened out". Curator Daljit Singh said that the pitch was not that dangerous and only a few balls had risen alarmingly. Makes one wonder, what were these men thinking? Were they waiting for someone to get seriously injured? Also makes one wonder, whether the BCCI knows the definition of a sporting pitch. A sporting pitch is one that gives bowlers and batsmen an equal chance, not one that resembles a village dirt-road with pot-holes from which the ball can fly off at angles unpredictable even by physics graduates.

Event of the year

This is a purely personal choice and deals with a matter that did not even happen on the cricket pitch. Virender Sehwag's taking on the DDCA was, for me, the best thing that happened in 2009. More than the runs he made, more than the breath-taking style in which he made them, Sehwag showed his steely mettle by refusing to bow down to what has for years together been known as the most corrupt cricketing administration in the country and stood up to the DDCA. With Sehwag looking likely to be at the centre of cricketing affairs for some years to come - being undroppable from any of the three formats - the game looks to be in good hands. Sehwag's stand is not likely to have improved matters, but with that gesture he showed us that he acts just like he bats. Audaciously and from the heart.