Monday 29 December 2014 20:05, UK
We look back at some of the biggest stories from our cricket coverage over the last 12 months...
England Women advance
The rise and rise of women’s cricket continued apace with the achievements of England’s players on the pitch at least matched, if not superseded by the seismic advances off it. Charlotte Edwards’s side succeeded where Alastair Cook’s could not, retaining the Ashes in Australia with a 10-8 multi-format victory.
The skipper’s stellar 18-year international career would go on to greater heights in April when she was named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year, and then in June, with the granting of a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. Team-mate Jenny Gunn received an MBE.
Defeats to Australia in the World Twenty20 final in Bangladesh and India, in the summer’s sole Test, came either side of the historic introduction of full-time professional contracts hailed as a significant step forward for women’s sport in general. The first standalone commercial arrangement for the team, with Kia, soon followed a 2-0 victory over India in the ICC Women’s Championship and a 3-0 Twenty20 international success over South Africa.
The team was subsequently shortlisted for the 2014 Sunday Times and Sky Sports Sportswomen of the Year Awards and in November it was confirmed that Sky Sports will broadcast every ball of the 2015 Women’s Ashes live for the first time.
Kevin Pietersen tells all
If the torture of a 5-0 Ashes drubbing wasn’t agony enough, the recrimination and very public claim and counter-claim surrounding the ECB’s fallout with Kevin Pietersen provided protracted pain for English fans and clouded the much-vaunted ‘new era’ presided over by returning coach Peter Moores and captain Alastair Cook.
Pietersen’s batting record remains untarnished (and, by the way, only Ian Bell of England’s batsmen averaged more in Australia) but his autobiographical revelations that former coach Andy Flower “ruled by fear” and that wicketkeeper Matt Prior orchestrated a culture of bullying in the dressing room (rubbished by Cook) left a distinct blemish on one of England’s most successful eras.
All this after Prior was reported to be the main peacemaker in Pietersen's reintegration into the England team following the ‘textgate’ scandal in 2011 and the seemingly happy build-up to Pietersen’s 100th Test, during which he asserted his desire to score 10,000 career Test runs and be part of England’s 2015-16 tour of South Africa.
If there was ever a chance of that happening, the book ended it. "I wouldn't have made the allegations if there was no basis to prove they were right,” Pietersen told Sky Sports, adding: "Anybody who loves English cricket is probably in a dark place right now." Dark, indeed.
Andrew Flintoff's return
‘There’s a guy works down the chip van swears he’s Freddie…’ Andrew Flintoff’s inclusion in Lancashire’s squad for the ‘Festival of Cricket’ that was NatWest T20 Finals Day came as a shock to anyone who’d seen him motoring around the country in a Fish Van in the preceding weeks, not least as the former England all-rounder’s comeback – initially described as a ‘massive mistake’ by Sir Ian Botham - had been limited to just two first-team appearances up to that point.
Not required for the semi-final victory over Hampshire, the-then 36-year-old replaced Kabir Ali for the final against hosts Birmingham and removed Ian Bell with his first ball as the England batsman sought to go over the top.
Later a couple of timely sixes off Oliver Hannon-Dalby in the 19th over suggested that Flintoff would provide those behind the newly-revamped competition with a script-writer’s finale and although it wasn’t to be Lancashire’s day, Freddie had firmly forced his way back into the public consciousness and paved the way for a Big Bash contract with the Brisbane Heat.
Startling stuff, no doubt, but it was run close in the bombshell stakes by Adam Hollioake’s demolition-man tackle on Michael Vaughan (running as an imposter squirrel) in the Mascot Race, the sight of a singlet-sporting Nick Knight strutting his stuff on a catwalk with Laurie Evans and a very special performance of ‘Start Me Up’ by the ‘Rolling Stones’, who didn’t quite seem their usual selves…
Alastair Cook saga
Alastair Cook’s removal as one-day captain less than two months before the World Cup ended one discussion in an on-going debate that spanned the year. Cook refused to resign as Test skipper after England’s 5-0 Ashes defeat (his second such whitewash as an England player) and the consensus amongst the Sky Sports pundits in those gloomiest hours in Sydney was that he needed to stamp his authority on the team. But with runs and results in short supply (a Test series defeat to Sri Lanka and an embarrassing implosion to India at Lord’s weighing heavily) the voices calling for him to step aside grew ever louder, one Kevin Pietersen even asserting before the third Test against India saying that Cook does "not have the tactical brain to lead the side".
But the tide ebbed during the third Test against India as the skipper – dropped by Ravindra Jadeja on 15 – showed great mental strength to score 95. The innings made him England’s third-highest Test run-scorer of all time, lifting him above David Gower’s tally of 8,231, and while he fell short of ending a 28-innings wait for a Test ton, that mattered not a jot to Cook as he was roundly cheered off the pitch by a vastly supportive crowd.
England’s 10-Test run without a win became a distant memory as India folded to lose by 266 runs and the home side went on to win the fourth and fifth Tests by an innings and plenty to seal the series 3-1. But the team’s one-day form remained poor and despite Paul Downton’s assertion that changing the captain so close to the World Cup would be “high-risk”, a 5-2 reverse in Sri Lanka during which Cook’s record worsened to one fifty in his previous 22 one-day innings, convinced the selectors that sticking to the status quo would be pure folly. Over to you, Eoin Morgan…
Phillip Hughes tragedy
"We’re going to miss that cheeky grin and the twinkle in his eye. He epitomised what the Baggy Green is all about and what it means to us all.” The tragic death of Phillip Hughes left the sporting – and wider world – numb and the words of traumatised Australian captain Michael Clarke fighting back tears brought home the raw emotion of a freak accident always feared but one few, if any, thought would ever happen.
The 25-year-old suffered bleeding on his brain after a bouncer from New South Wales seamer Sean Abbott struck Hughes on the neck, compressing his vertebral artery. Only 100 cases of such a death have ever been reported, none previously caused by a cricket ball. The tributes were global and sweeping in their respect for a batsman on the brink of earning his latest recall to the Australian Test team. That 27th Test cap would never come.
Cricketers across the planet paid their tribute by joining a #putoutyourbats campaign on Twitter, while Cricket Australia amended the scorecard for Hughes' final innings from 63 retired to 63 not out and amended the dates of Australia’s Test series with India to give the players more time to grieve.
Just days after delivering an emotional eulogy at Hughes’ funeral, Clarke led Australia out onto the field again in Adelaide. The captain limped out of the action on day one with a back spasm, but after a night of painkilling injections and physiotherapy, he returned the next day to score a century and his side went on to win a thrilling first Test against India, both teams playing an attacking brand of cricket befitting of Hughes’s memory.
"Our dressing room will never be the same,” said Clarke. “We loved him, and always will. Rest in peace."
