Decade in Review

“00-09 ten tumultuous years” says Cricinfo in its decade review – as apt as it is, it still feels like an understatement. The game has gone through such a metamorphosis that sometimes I wonder if it’s the same game that I fell in love with sometime in the early nineties. I know change is inevitable but a change of such monumental proportions and more importantly at such breakneck speed is hard to digest. This decade was what 90’s was for world financial markets, a decade of absolute excess. The game died a thousand deaths and had just as many renaissances! F1 executive thinks Cricket is giving their sport a run for their money and the God who bats at no.4 for India went onto become the all-time highest scorer in test cricket in front of a near empty stadium at home! Match-fixing, Sydney gate, IPL, Kolkata, Ashes, T-20 the decade had it all and some more. We can dedicate a month to review this decade and in all probability we would still fall short. And we also have to pick our customary Decade XI for both tests and ODI’s (Not yet for T-20s!). Hey…what about the cricketing awards for the decade? All this and a little more to follow in the next few posts.