Well, officially the season hasn't quite ended since the last one-dayer between Australia and South Africa still remains to be played but given that its a dead rubber, the season is as good as over.
And what a season its been. Probably as much action off-field as on it, but its been riveting throughout and the quality of Test cricket overall (apart from the WI-Eng series) has been top-notch and a welcome reminder of why I like the 5 day format the most. The two Aus-SA series have in particular been fascinating to watch though a lot of it has been driven by Australia waiting too long to make much needed changes. South Africa though has truly come on in leaps and bounds and though they will be losing Kallis and Ntini sooner rather than later, their decreasing reliance on them over the last year or so has meant that they won't be missed much. Their one-day game has come along strongly too and they should have a genuine shot at the World Cup this time. Australia on the other hand has floundered in the limited overs formats (injuries to Marsh, Watson and Lee haven't helped) but you can bet on them to right things pretty quickly. The two standout players for me have been Mitchell Johnson and AB deVilliers, and if they can keep this trajectory going, they should be the best players in the world in the next two years.
India has continued to perform strongly, and for a change consistently. The end was a bit disappointing with the safety-first approach in Wellington but overall, the team has genuine world-beating ability and belief combined for the first time since 2003-04. Gautam Gambhir's progress has been extraordinary and the return to form of Zaheer and Harbhajan critical. The only missing pieces are the last middle-order berth and the third seamer. They'll also need to identify reliable replacements for Dravid and Tendulkar relatively soon otherwise hopes of world domination will remain just that.
On the evidence of last season, there's a big gulf between these three teams and the rest of the world though. England and Sri Lanka are mediocre at best and seem to lack the edge in bowling (unless Ajantha Mendis can actually succeed Murali) to make them consistently challenging. New Zealand will always fight and have unearthed a gem in Jesse Ryder but without Shane Bond no team will worry about them. Pakistan and West Indies continue to be the most mercurial teams around with a lack of opportunity for the former making things worse. And the less said about Bangladesh, the better.
That said, things can change pretty rapidly and the beginning of the 2009 season, dominated as it is by T20 will likely see some upsets and the emergence of some new players especially in the IPL. The real fun begins after that though with the Ashes and unlike the last two times, I will be cheering for Australia, not least because England deserve to lose for the way they manage their cricket. More on these later though. The 2008-09 season was a lot of fun and hopefully the 2009-2010 one will be at least as much!
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