Stuffy boardroom battles, breezy debuts, teary farewells and a fresh coat of tar by the fixers — cricket withs... Read More

Stuffy boardroom battles, breezy debuts, courageous career-saving fightbacks, teary farewells and a fresh coat of tar by the fixers — cricket withstood all of that and plenty more in 2013.

To begin with, Indian cricket wasn't exactly in a happy space leading into the New Year. A Test series against England was lost at home after almost three decades. The selectors had lost faith in Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir at the top of the order. They brought in Shikhar Dhawan to partner Murali Vijay and things took a turn for the better.

The 27-year-old's boundary-laden onslaught on the visiting Australians captured the nation's attention even more than his sharp and trendy moustache as he took just 85 balls to reach three figures. It was the fastest recorded century on debut, beating the 93-ball effort by West Indies' Dwayne Smith against South Africa in 2004. By the time Dhawan reached 185, he had made the highest ever score by an Indian debutant, putting into oblivion Gundappa Viswanath's 137 back in 1969.

There were couple of other debutants who impressed. Rohit Sharma 's rich vein of form saw him crack back-to-back hundreds against the West Indies while Mohammad Shami registered a five-wicket haul against the same side at Kolkata.

Sharma had become the third Indian to score a double hundred in an ODI when he scored 209 from 158 balls against Australia at Bangalore.

The fans also warmed up to the talent of Quinton de Kock, the 21-year-old South African wicketkeeper batsman who struck three consecutive ODI hundreds against India in his first year of international cricket.

The year will also be looked back as the one in which some of the leading lights faded away. While Sachin Tendulkar and Jacques Kallis walked into sunset leaving their countless fans with moist eyes and a lump in their throats, England's attacking spinner Graeme Swann deserted his team mid-series in the Ashes by announcing his retirement. Jonathan Trott too threw in the towel and returned home after the first Test. His abrupt departure from the Ashes once again brought out the mental frailties of international cricketers.

This was primarily due to Mitchell Johnson, who revived his career with some hostile bowling. Apart from hurrying England's downfall Down Under, he also brought back into fashion the art of aggressive fast bowling. Johnson's performance also put the wind back into the sails of the flagging Aussies who had lost their way in India and England.

The entertaining on-field intensity was met with a familiar sense of stodginess by the men in suits.

The BCCI , as is its wont, flexed its obtrusive financial muscle to rob million of fans the opportunity to witness a full-fledged Test series between India and South Africa. This was done with the intention of getting back at Cricket South Africa for appointing Haroon Lorgat as its CEO.

The BCCI has no time for the hard-nosed South African chartered accountant, who as the ICC chief, did all he could to loosen India's strong grip over the game. N Srinivasan, the man who rules cricket with an iron fist, struck where it hurts the most by announcing a shortened itinerary, which reduced the revenue by almost 100 crores for CSA.

Even the as board games continued, the scourge of match-fixing raised its ugly head again, in India, Bangladesh and New Zealand. The sight of India fast bowler S Sreesanth with a piece of black cloth pulled over his face, sandwiched between two sniggering policemen, shook the faith of the fans. The Kerala pacer was paying the price for his alleged role in spot-fixing during the sixth edition of the IPL.

He along with his Rajasthan Royals teammates Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, besides 26 others, were arrested in May following investigations by the police.

The arrest by Delhi police, put their Mumbai counterparts on an overdrive and that resulted in the arrest of Gurunath Meiyappan, Srinivasan's son-in-law and more importantly the Team Principal of the Chennai Super Kings — a team led by India captain MS Dhoni.

Meiyappan was arrested for placing huge bets along with actor Vindoo Dara Singh on games including those involving CSK which was in clear contravention with the BCCI constitution. The board, a past-master at sweeping its own follies under the carpet, banned the players and did what it could to save Meiyappan. But due to Cricket Association of Bengal's (CAB) persistence the matter is now being investigated by a committee headed by a retired judge Mukul Mudgal following the Supreme Court's order.