The year 2006 proved to be a pretty good one for sport, particularly Australian sport which, to me, is all that really matters. It started out with a bang with our cricketers defeating the Sith Ifricans (say it out loud – it makes sense) in the final Test of the home series, winning the triangular one-day series and going over to beat them 3-0 in Tests on their own turf . Not that it was all perfect. The Aussies amassed a world-record 434 one-day tally only to be beaten by four runs in one of the most spectacular run-fests ever seen (Pakistan went on to later eclipse even this remarkable score)  with the Aussies losing the ODI series 3-2.

As the local cricket season faded and the nation drifted into that sporting dead zone between the summer and winter sports, we were treated to the Winter Olympics and that festival of mediocrity known as the Commonwealth Games (or the unofficial Sierra Leonian migration programme as it has become known).

The Winter Olympics should be exciting but, for some reason, it just doesn’t do it for me. The last time that I was remotely interested in snow skiing was when the dead hand of Charles Darwin reached out to run Sonny Bono into a tree, thus righting a wrong perpetuated by a generation of variety television watchers and the voters of California’s 44th Congressional District. Admittedly, Darwin got involved too late to stop him from breeding, but it was a point that had to be made. If we can only get George W and Arnie to Aspen, he could finish the job (Apparently, Darwin did make an effort over the Christmas break, but the Governator only broke his leg).

The Winter Olympics somehow reminds me of a rich kids' playground that we are occasionally given a tour through just to make us envious. Maybe it’s because I only see snow every ten years or so that I have no interest in what they do on it. Besides, I really can't cope with ice dancing being considered a sport. I know it takes fitness and hours of work, but so does landscaping and that should never be regarded as a sport. Australia's only gold medalist this time around was a Canadian chap who I'm sure knows where Australia is, but I'm not convinced he'd ever been here.

As for the CGs, Aussies seem to like them for some reason; mainly, I suspect, because we’re good at them. They are, however, an increasingly anachronistic affair. They came into effect so that we – the members of the Commonwealth – could get together for a run, jump and a shoot together to remind us that we’re all on the same team. Now, of course, we go off and invade Iraq instead.

The CGs are harmless enough, the sporting contests are, for the most part, pure sport and the athletes compete for the glory of said sport. They do, however, suffer from an identity crisis. On one hand, they want to be considered as an elite sporting festival but, at the same time, they want to be friendly and inclusive. The result is a mixed bag of excellence and ordinariness, with a leaning towards the latter. Only four world records were broken, one by the Australian women’s medley relay team, one by Liesel Jones and two by Matthew Cowdrey, an EAD swimmer.

As a contrast, members of the Lesotho women’s weightlifting team put in some awful performances. Their heavyweight lifter, in the 75kg-plus category, lifted only 35kg in the snatch and 45kg in the clean and jerk. It really makes you wonder how the hell she carried her suitcase to the airport. Sure it’s not supposed to be about winning and losing, but surely some minimum standards need to apply.

But average performances aside, the most disappointing aspect of the CGs was the media coverage. While I can’t speak for the rest of the world, the Australian coverage was so jingoistic as to be embarrassing. Events in which Australians were not expected to win or perform well in were not covered or, if they were, coverage was restricted to the Australian performance only. Similarly, medal ceremonies covered only the Aussies getting their medals, particularly if someone from another nation won. National pride is one thing, nationalism is an altogether a different and more sinister thing.

Australians performed well elsewhere in world sport, too. The Australian World Cup soccer side performed well beyond expectations to reach the second round of the competition and were eliminated by the eventual winners, Italy. There was a great deal of annoyance at the method of elimination and the rumour that Greg Louganis was on the Italian coaching staff has never really been effectively dispelled. Nevertheless, it was a coming of age for Australian soccer and a tremendous shot in the arm for the sport down under.

The Opals, Australia’s women’s basketball team, took out the World Championships, beating Russia in the final after they, in turn, had defeated the heavily- fancied Americans in the semi-finals.

Meanwhile, Geoff Ogilvy became the first Aussie in 25 years to take out the US Open golf championship and the first Aussie golfer to win a major in 11 years.

The one constant for the years was that no matter where an Aussie sportsman/woman had performed well, our PM, John Howard, was sure to appear. It is always vaguely amusing watching Howard interact with athletes, knowing that he has spent a lifetime simultaneously living in envy and being shunned by them. He is like the overly enthusiastic little brother that your mum always made you take to play with your mates, really annoying, but imbued with a false sense that he is popular because your mates were nice to him. The athletes don’t know quite whether to be excited at meeting the PM or to be afraid, as he exudes this stalker-like obsessiveness when being introduced to successful people.

It wasn’t all good news. Although not strictly speaking an athlete, Darrel Hair’s treatment at the hands of the ICC was despicable. Although Hair could have handled things a bit differently, it was Inzamam ul-Haq, and his team, not Hair, that precipitated the events at the Oval, yet ul-Haq got off virtually free whilst Hair lost his career. A shameful episode that further tarnished the already damaged reputation of the ICC.

Other lowlights included the ongoing spat between Jana Pittman and Tamsyn Lewis, whose ongoing fight dominated the headlines leading into the CGs, but who seemed to put aside their animus to participate in the lowest moment of the Commonwealth Games, the appeal against the English team in the 4x400m relay final.

The cricketers started the run to the end of the year with success at the Champions Trophy. This was the only competition that the Aussies had never won and although it is difficult to ascertain why it is called the Champions Trophy (you don’t even need to win a game to qualify) there was a serious determination to win it.

The year ended on a mixed note. The Ashes were returned to their rightful home in record time and in an emphatic manner, but the cricketing world is set to lose two of its greatest stars and the Australian team loses four members of its Test side. How the Aussies will perform without Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne and, to a lesser extent, Justin Langer remains to be seen, but there is no doubt that the rest of the world is keen to find out.

What were your sporting highlights of 2006? How was your sporting year? Tell us at Sportingo.