Aussies dominate cricket and Murali becomes all-time leading wicket-taker

by Stuart Condie

CRICKET YEAR: LONDON, December 22, 2007: The story of 2007 was another one of Australian dominance.

On the field, anyway.

Australia lifted the one-day World Cup for a record fourth time and won every Test match it played. But away from the games, the balance of power continued to shift inexorably toward Asia and the huge sums of money generated in India and Pakistan.

Income from television rights meant the World Cup in the Caribbean could be played in near empty stadiums and still make a profit, while the wild celebrations that greeted India's success in the inaugural World Twenty20 suggested the newest form of the game could drive the sport's development for years to come.

The year was also marked by the death of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer at the World Cup, and Muttiah Muralitharan becoming the all-time leading wicket-taker.

But Australia is still setting the standards out in the middle. It had already won back the Ashes before 2006 was out and started the new year by completing a 5-0 rout of England - marking the series' first whitewash since 1921.

The crushing victory over second-ranked England confirmed Australia's status as the best test side in the world, and arguably the greatest ever.

Australia spent much of the past 12 months making sure it also has a strong claim to being the best one-day team of all time.

Defeat in a tri-series with New Zealand and England was followed by a 3-0 loss to the Black Caps in the Chappell-Hadlee series, but any concerns the Aussies had were washed away as soon as the World Cup began.

Australia cruised through the Caribbean, ruthlessly disposing of World Cup opponents with almost contemptuous ease on its way to a third straight title.

It was appropriate that a tournament bedeviled by poor organization ended in chaotic scenes as Australia was forced back out onto the Bridgetown field in near darkness to complete a 53-run win over Sri Lanka.

Despite Australia's stellar play - including the bludgeoning batting of Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist's record 104-ball 149 in the final - the tournament was abysmal for the International Cricket Council and West Indies host.

There was heavy criticism for stretching a 16-nation competition over 46 days and gearing ticket prices toward affluent tourists at the expense of the famously passionate Caribbean fans.

Locals' fervor was dampened even more by the woeful performances of West Indies, carried for the last time by batting great Brian Lara. The elegant, left-handed Lara ended a 16-year career as test cricket's leading scorer on 11,953 runs, including an all-time high 400 not out against England.

The worst moment of the tournament, however, had nothing to do with the organizers or even cricket. Woolmer was found dead in his hotel room hours after his team's shock elimination from the first round.

Rumors of match-fixing and murder gained hold when a Jamaican pathologist said Woolmer was strangled, causing a global homicide investigation.

But foreign pathologists believed Woolmer died from natural causes and the truth was still unclear when an inquest ended last month with a Jamaican jury returning an open verdict.

The loss of the popular Woolmer cast a shadow over the World Cup that even the surprise appearance in the Super Eight of Ireland and Bangladesh couldn't shift.

Australia made light of its own retirements, continuing to steamroll opponents despite Justin Langer, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, and Shane Warne all stepping down from the national team.

Warne, the only bowler among Wisden Almanack's five cricketers of the 20th century, called time on his career after the final Ashes test in Sydney, the legspinner's 708 test victims making him the game's leading wicket-taker - a mantle regained by Muralitharan 11 months later on his Sri Lanka home ground against England.

McGrath, the third-highest test wicket-taker when he finished, delayed retirement to cap his magnificent career with a wicket in the World Cup final, after which he was named the player of the tournament.

With John Buchanan retiring after the World Cup to be replaced by Tim Neilsen, Australia was among eight of the 10 test teams to switch coaches in 2007.

Sri Lanka's Tom Moody and Duncan Fletcher, whose star had waned considerably since he led England to the 2005 Ashes, were among those to step down, leaving South Africa and New Zealand as the only sides to keep faith with their coaches.

With the World Cup roundly criticized, limited-overs cricket got the shot in the arm it desperately needed from September's World Twenty20 in South Africa.

The newest form of the game provided the sellout crowds, huge viewing figures, buzzing atmospheres and gripping matches that were all absent in the Caribbean.

With every run vital and margins of victory often tiny, big-hitting players reshaped ideas of what kind of delivery could be smashed to the boundary - even when they were sent down by the world's best bowlers.

Herschelle Gibbs had matched Garfield Sobers' 29-year-old feat of hitting six sixes in an over when he lashed out at the World Cup, but that was against the lowly Netherlands.

At the World Twenty20, India's Yuvraj Singh hit six sixes off England's Stuart Broad on his way to an astonishing 16-ball 58 and his team went on to beat fierce rival Pakistan by five runs in a thrilling final.

With Twenty20 taking off around the world, there could be a lot more of the same in 2008.

AP