It says a lot about the sort of year that cricket had, that the biggest story of 2007 had nothing to do with the game. Sadly, the Keystone Kops routine surrounding the death of Bob Woolmer pretty much summed up a year that the game will want to forget very quickly indeed.

It started with a whimper and went downhill from there. The year opened with the final capitulation of England to complete a 5-0 whitewash by Australia. It was followed by a lacklustre tri-nations one-day series that it seemed no-one wanted to be part of.

In South Africa, the home team finished off the tour by India with victory in a much more competitive Test series. They did the same in the follow-up series against Pakistan, losing one Test and one ODI. Elsewhere, however, all eyes were on the World Cup in the West Indies.

'Despite all of the energy expended preparing, promoting and hosting the 2007 cricket World Cup, it was an unmitigated disaster'


History tells us that despite all of the energy expended preparing, promoting and hosting the 2007 cricket World Cup, it was an unmitigated disaster. The p***-poor performances of some of the world’s alleged heavyweights, namely India and Pakistan, led to their early exit and, with them, any hope of profits from the broadcasting rights.

And then there was Bob. The murder/suicide/suspicious death/death by natural causes (cross out which ever no longer applies) overshadowed the whole circus. This piece of dreadful police work led to a perhaps not undeserved dissection of Pakistan cricket and, with it, the whole seedy underbelly of the game worldwide.

As the cricket world laboured under the misapprehension that Woolmer had been murdered, it was decided that the game had to go on. At the time, there were calls to abandon the World Cup. On one hand it would have been a small mercy to end that dreadful tournament but, in the end, it would also have been absolutely ridiculous to end it in protest against something that didn’t actually happen.

Australia again walked away with the trophy in a final that was a metaphor for the tournament itself. Disorganised, confused and shambolic – a dreadful end to what was supposed to have been the global showpiece of the gentleman’s sport. Questions needed to be asked, and probably were, but neither the shambles that was the final, nor the disaster of the tournament itself, led to any significant change within the ICC. No-one was fired, reprimanded or even made responsible for either travesty. No wonder Darrell Hair feels peeved.

The game then went into a kind of hiatus, waiting for what turned out to be the only highlight of the year – the inaugural ICC Twenty20 Championship. It was here that the South Africans delivered everything that the ICC should have arranged in the West Indies; a punchy, 13-day tournament that delivered excitement, competitive games and a winner inside a fortnight. The only downside is that it isn’t really cricket! Of course, India won against arch-rivals Pakistan and, in doing so, landed the only piece of international silverware not already claimed by the Aussies.

The year 2007 saw the farewell of some legends of the game. For the Aussies, the loss of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer could have derailed the juggernaut that is Australian cricket. Sadly for the rest of the world, it looks like it has made no difference whatsoever.

The game also lost one of the greatest batsmen in Brian Lara. The West Indian prince had rewritten just about every batting record worth having. Nearly 12,000 runs, the only batsman to ever score 400, Lara was possibly the most stylish left-hander to ever play the game. A true master of his craft.

Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya also bade farewell to Test cricket and the game will be much poorer for his departure. Similarly, Inzamam ul-Haq decided he no longer had the passion to go on after the tumultuous year the Pakistan team had been through. These guys were joined by Sri Lanka’s Marvan Atapattu, Russel Arnold and New Zealand's plucky Craig McMillan.

There was perhaps one other 'good' news story in 2007 apart from the Twenty20 tournament. Muttiah Muralitharan passed Shane Warne’s all-time wicket-taking record of 708 scalps, despite being denied the record in Australia by a resolute show of national pride by the Aussie batsmen. Murali’s eventual total will not be beaten for some time, although how history will perceive him remains in doubt.

For me, however, the year will always be remembered for the passing (from the cricket world) of Warne. As long as I live, I will remember 'that' ball in 1993 – his first in a Test match in England – and how Mike Gatting still has no clue as to what happened. Warne was a one-of-a-kind renegade and maverick, but above all, he was an entertainer. God knows the game needs more of those.