Death overshadows 2014
THE tragic death of Phillip Hughes cast a shadow over an eventful year that saw Ashes rivals Australia and England brawl on the field and bond off it, joining India to pull off a bloodless coup and take charge of the game.
Australian Hughes died in a Sydney hospital on November 27, two days after being hit on the head by a bouncer three days before his 26th birthday.
His death triggered an avalanche of tributes while questions were raised about the safety standards in the game.
Hughes scored 1 500-odd runs in 26 tests but will be remembered more for the impression he left on teammates and opponents.
“I don’t know about you, but I keep looking for him,” distraught Australia captain Michael Clarke, a near-constant presence at Hughes’s bedside, said at the funeral.
Hughes’s death came in the year that compatriot Mitchell Johnson and South African speedster Dale Steyn were hailed for reviving the art of intimidating fast bowling.
Left-arm paceman Johnson took 37 England wickets in Australia’s 5-0 Ashes whitewash, instilling fear in the minds of the batsmen with his raw pace.
England’s campaign Down Under looked doomed and they continued to reel in the aftermath of an Ashes debacle that ended the England careers of coach Andy Flower and flamboyant batsman Kevin Pietersen.
The trouble started when top-order batsman Jonathan Trott flew home with a stressrelated illness after the first test in Brisbane and was compounded when off-spinner Graeme Swann announced his shock retire- ment after their third straight defeat. The English board offered little explanation as it cast Pietersen aside, beyond a need to rebuild “team ethics”.
The Maritzburg-born player went on to chronicle embarrassing details of dressingroom controversies in his autobiography.
The Ashes rivals joined hands with the powerful Indian board in a significant development that effectively put the “Big Three“in charge of the game.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) passed key reforms that promise the trio a greater share of the revenue pie, while projecting higher earnings for other boards too.
India’s Narayanaswami Srinivasan took over as ICC chairman in June even before being cleared by a committee probing corruption in the Indian Premier League.
The cash-strapped West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) voted in favour of the ICC reforms hoping to revive its fortune but now stare at financial trouble instead, having incurred the wrath of the Indian cricket board, the world’s richest.
Enraged by the pull-put of the West Indies team midway through a series the Indian cricket board severed cricketing ties with the Caribbean board and made a $42-million (R490- million) damages claim.
Elsewhere, Sri Lanka gave their outgoing stalwarts Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene a perfect farewell by winning the Twenty20 World Cup in Dhaka, beating India in the final.
New Zealand’s Corey Anderson took 36 balls to score the fastest century in ODIs while India’s Rohit Sharma blasted a 173-ball 264 to register the highest ODI score by a batsman. – Reuters