Skysports.com picks out cricket's memorable moments during the last 12 months.
Skysports.com looks back over the last 12 months
It has been another action-packed year in the world of cricket featuring plenty of the twin imposters, triumph and disaster.
Click here for a recap of 2011 in pictures
Andy Flower's stock continued to rise as England went unbeaten in Test cricket and finished the year on top of the ICC rankings.
The World Cup in the subcontinent had a fairytale ending as India triumphed in Sachin Tendulkar's home city of Mumbai.
Tendulkar's team-mate Virender Sehwag took ODI batting into new territory with his 219 against West Indies.
In the domestic game, Lancashire ended their long wait in the County Championship, while Somerset once again went close on all fronts only to finish empty handed.
And on a less positive note, three Pakistan cricketers were sent to jail for their roles in a spot-fixing conspiracy.
Check out skysports.com's moments of the year and share your own thoughts and memories using the feedback box at the bottom of the page...
Test team of the year - England
England started the year by completing their
first Ashes win in Australia for 24 years and finished it
holding top spot in the ICC Test rankings. Andrew Strauss' men went unbeaten in eight Tests, compiling a record of six wins and two draws, including a
4-0 series whitewash of India, the previous No.1 side.
One-day team of the year - India
India's year was full of highs and lows, none higher than their
World Cup victory on home soil. After dethroning three-time defending champions Australia in the quarter-final, Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men held their nerve to see off neighbours Pakistan in the semi-final and Sri Lanka in the final. India had an overall 15-2 win-loss record at home in ODIs during the year, including a 5-0 whitewash of England. But they were less solid away from their own conditions with series losses in South Africa and England.
County team of the year - Lancashire
The waiting was finally over for Lancashire in September when victory over Somerset on the final day of the season earned them
a first outright County Championship title since 1934. Under the guidance of discarded England coach Peter Moores and veteran captain Glen Chapple, a squad built on local talent finally achieved what so many of their predecessors had failed to do.
International player of the year - Alastair Cook
Cook scored heavily in Test cricket and established himself as an ODI player after being handed the England captaincy in the 50-over format following the World Cup. He started the year with 189 in Sydney as the Ashes were retained and scored centuries in his next two Tests at home to Sri Lanka, before a
career-best 294 against India at Edgbaston. In all, he scored 927 Test runs at an average of 84.27. Cook was also given a chance to lead the ODI team after Andrew Strauss' retirement from white ball action and responded with 600 runs in 15 innings.
County Player of the Year - Marcus Trescothick
Somerset endured another season as bridesmaids but that was through no fault of skipper Trescothick. The opening batsman tore into bowling attacks up and down the country, finishing with 1,673 runs in the Championship, 300 more than his nearest rival. Other notable performers included a pair of veteran seam bowlers, Worcestershire's Alan Richardson helping his team avoid relegation with 73 wickets, while David Masters of Essex was the leading wicket taker across both divisions with 93.
Best innings - Virender Sehwag, 219, Indore
For the second year in a row, an Indian batsman produced a new benchmark in the 50-over game. Opener Virender Sehwag surpassed team-mate Sachin Tendulkar's 200 with an
innings of 219 against West Indies in Indore on December 8. Sehwag hit 25 fours and seven sixes during his 149-ball knock, even declining the offer of some flowers on reaching his double century from a man who ran out to the middle. He was dropped once, by West Indies captain Darren Sammy on 170, before finally being dismissed by Kieron Pollard from the third ball of the 47th over.
Best series - Australia in South Africa
A bit of a stretch to call two Tests a series but Australia's short visit to South Africa served up a pair of thrilling matches. The Proteas took the opener by eight wickets in Cape Town after reducing Australia to 21-9 in their second innings.
Australia 'recovered' to 47 all out to avoid the lowest score in history and set South Africa 236 for victory,
a target they achieved thanks to centuries from Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla. A week later in Johannesburg and Australia secured a drawn series as
teenager Pat Cummins settled a classic in their favour. Cummins, on debut, took 6-79 in South Africa's second innings and saw Australia to their target of 310 and a two-wicket win with a quickfire 13 not out at number 10.
Surprise - New Zealand win in Hobart
New Zealand had not won a Test in Australia since a Richard Hadlee-inspired success in Perth in 1985. Step forward Doug Bracewell, nephew of former off-spinner and coach John, to
bowl the Black Caps to a seven-run win in Hobart in December, Australia's first defeat at the venue. Chasing 241, Australia were all out for 233 with rookie seamer Bracewell claiming 6-40. Bracewell's efforts gave New Zealand a share of the series although were not enough for the man-of-the-match award, which went to Australia opener David Warner for his 123 not out!
Low point - Jail time for spot-fixers
A trio of Pakistan cricketers were put behind bars after being
found guilty of plotting to fix parts of Pakistan's Lord's Test against England in 2010. Former captain Salman Butt was jailed for 30 months, seam bowler Mohammad Asif was given a 12-month term and teenage paceman Mohammad Amir a six-month sentence for their roles.
Year to Remember
Saeed Ajmal - Pakistan started a revival as the year progressed under the leadership of Misbah-ul-Haq. But it was the wickets of Saeed Ajmal, 46 in seven Tests, that caught the eye as a succession of batsmen from all corners of the globe failed to pick his doosra.
Ian Bell - The most elegant member of England's top order made the most of his limited chances, scoring five Test centuries in 11 innings and averaging 118.75.
Darren Bravo - West Indies continued to struggle but were at least buoyed by the emergence of a new batting star. Bravo, half-brother of all-rounder Dwayne, finished the year on a high with three centuries in four Tests, including back-to-back efforts in India. His numbers at this stage of his career are superior to another Trinidad left-hander, Brian Lara.
Rahul Dravid - The fire still burns bright for India's veteran number three, who passed 1,000 Test runs during the calendar year.
Kumar Sangakkara - Sri Lanka's number three scored heavily but, aside from the run to the World Cup final, was too often playing a lone hand.
Year to forget
Bangladesh - The Tigers' decade-long failure to make an impact in international cricket continued. They did not make the knockout stage of the World Cup despite playing most of their fixtures on home soil, a failure that cost Shakib Al Hasan the captaincy and brought an end to Jamie Siddons' time as coach. Bangladesh also went winless in four Tests, including a defeat to Zimbabwe in Harare.
Ricky Ponting- After giving up the captaincy after Australia's Ashes loss, Ponting opted to continue as a batsman with limited success. He passed 50 just once in 2011 and has been out lbw five times in his last seven innings prior to the Boxing Day Test.
Simon Katich - Ponting's 12 months pale in comparison to his former team-mate Katich's. The obdurate New South Wales opener was thrown on the scrap heap by Australia's selectors despite the seeming lack of quality alternatives and faced a disciplinary hearing after a public outburst aimed at new skipper Michael Clarke, with whom he has been feuding since 2009.
Sri Lanka's Test team: Under Tillakaratne Dilshan's leadership, Sri Lanka failed to win a Test during 2011 and suffered series defeats in England, at home to Australia and on neutral territory against Pakistan. They have one final chance to beak that duck against South Africa in Durban, starting on Boxing Day.
Darren Sammy - One of the cricket's great mysteries remains as West Indies continue to stick with Sammy as captain. The St Lucian medium pacer is, at best, a borderline selection in the starting XI and consistently baffles with his tactical decisions in the field.
Thanks for the memories
Shoaib Akhtar - The first bowler to be clocked at 100mph, Shoaib was controversial and injury prone - but always compelling to watch. He called time on his Pakistan career after the World Cup, finishing up with 178 Test and 247 ODI wickets.
Ali Brown - A dashing batsman with Surrey and Nottinghamshire in county cricket for almost two decades, Brown's 16-match ODI career for England was highlighted by a century against India at Old Trafford in 1996.
Dominic Cork - The much-travelled all-rounder retired at the age of 40. Cork won trophies with Derbyshire, Lancashire and Hampshire but is best remembered for the explosive start to his Test career in 1995 when he took 7-43 against West Indies at Lord's, the best figures by an Englishman on debut. He followed up with a hat-trick at Old Trafford later in the series but never hit the same heights again and faded off England's radar after 2002.
Paul Nixon - Leicestershire's triumph in the Friends Provident t20 provided a fitting finale for their veteran wicketkeeper. Nixon, 40, won two County Championship titles with the Foxes and played 19 ODIs for England during a 24-year professional career.
Sanath Jayasuriya - Sri Lanka's powerful opening batsman enjoyed a brief swansong in 2011, somewhat bizarrely playing two limited-overs matches against England in June to bring the curtain down on an international career that started in 1989. Best remembered for blazing away at the top of the order in ODIs, Jayasuriya provided the model for how to take advantage of the early powerplay overs. He was also an effective left-arm spinner, as shown by his 323 ODI wickets, which place him 10th on the all-time list.
Muttiah Muralitharan - The leading wicket taker in both Test and ODI history took his leave from the international game after the World Cup final. The Sri Lanka spinner, hampered by injury, bowed out in a losing cause against India. His records, 800 Test and 534 ODI wickets, will stand for some time.
Gone but not forgotten
Trevor Bailey - One of the finest English all-rounders, 'Barnacle' Bailey scored over 2,000 Test runs to go with 132 wickets in 61 matches between 1949 to 1959. After his retirement, Bailey was a respected journalist and popular member of the
Test Match Special team. He died in February at the age of 87.
Graham Dilley - Dilley was the fastest English bowler of his generation, taking 138 wickets in 41 Tests. His contribution of 56 to a 117-run, eighth-wicket stand with Ian Botham at Headingley in 1981 was the turning point of that year's Ashes series as England won after following-on. He died in October at the age of 52.
Basil D'Oliveira - 'Dolly' was a South African-born all-rounder denied the chance to play for his country because of the apartheid regime. Instead he appeared in 44 Tests for England, scoring five centuries and taking 47 wickets. His inclusion in the MCC squad to tour the land of his birth in 1968 led to the South African government calling off the tour and marked the start of the country's cricketing isolation. He died in November at the age of 80.
Terry Jenner - A leg-spinner good enough to play nine Tests for Australia, Jenner became a respected coach in his later years and was instrumental in the development of Shane Warne. He died in May at the age of 66.
Peter Loader - The Surrey fast bowler was unfortunate to be born in a golden generation of English seamers. He would have played more than 13 Tests in any other era but did make his mark by taking England's first post-War hat-trick against West Indies at Leeds in 1957. He died in March at the age of 81.
Sam Loxton - An all-rounder who played 12 Tests for Australia, Loxton was a member of the Don Bradman-led 1948 side that went unbeaten throughout a tour of England. His death in December at the age of 90 leaves Neil Harvey and Arthur Morris as the surviving members of the 'Invincibles'.
Peter Roebuck - The former Somerset captain became a high-profile voice on the game after his retirement as a television commentator and writer. He died in November in Cape Town at the age of 55.
Fred Titmus - An off-spinner who relied on flight and guile for his wickets, Titmus played 53 Tests for England and represented Middlesex throughout a professional career spanning five decades. He overcame a boating accident during a tour of West Indies that cost him four toes. Titmus died in March at the age of 78.
