Blue chips of the year

GIVEN that the traditional end to the cricket season never takes place these days, and makes creating almanacks and annuals the most difficult job of all, the calendar year might just revert to being an option for analysis. Admittedly, it splits the season in a few countries down the middle but, as this year's winners show, it tends to throw up a reasonably fair result. A statistician can give you the exact numbers and I suspect that list will closely match that of most qualitative analyses as well.

Certainly among the batsmen, nobody can have any complaints at all and the blue chips feature in the year's best players. The brightest news of the year was the return to top form of Brian Lara. There is no doubt that when mind and body are working together, he is a very close contender for the best player in the world. He is definitely the most exciting to watch and his duel with a rampant Muralitharan in Sri Lanka was fantastic for world cricket. Here were two men on top of the cricket world matching wits; one the best bowler for his side and often the only one, the other invariably the only batsman for his side.

Lara finished the season with four centuries, 1151 runs and an average of 63.94 and while others may have averaged more, few would argue with the verdict that he lit up the late end of the year and made it a performance to savour. The man he is compared to most often, Sachin Tendulkar had another productive year and in our obsession with analysing him, we don't realise that he hardly ever has a bad year.

He went past 7000 Test runs, took further strides towards Sunil Gavaskar's seemingly unreachable 34 Test hundreds and averaged over 60 in both Tests and one-day internationals. That is stunning and if it doesn't catch your eye immediately it is only because we always want more. But 2001 wasn't as much about the number of runs Tendulkar made as the manner in which he made them.

At one end of the spectrum, he played a dazzling innings against South Africa at Bloemfontein and that effort of 155 will long be remembered by those who saw it. And yet, at several times in the year, he wasn't his usual dominant self concentrating on building innings rather than destroying attacks. It might be a new stage of evolution, an understanding that he is into the second half of his career or just a greater determination to score runs. Whatever the reason, Tendulkar made the runs India wanted of him and the others didn't quite produce them.

The third star in the modern trinity of batsmen turned 36 and batted with the determination that has made him one of the game's most respected figures. Steve Waugh had another 50 plus average though he struggled towards the end of the year, beset as he was with injury. And yet, it was the courage he showed against injury itself that characterised the year and produced probably the bravest performance of all. Aware that he would probably never tour England again, and determined that his exit on a stretcher should not be the last memory to leave behind, he worked on his recovery like a man possessed; doing everything he could to play in the last Ashes Test. He did and scored a most romantic 157, running as little as he could until the dramatic single that produced the century.

Two of his countrymen would find a place in the top 10 for the year. Matthew Hayden showed once again that India on Indian wickets can be quite an agreeable experience. He had the two qualities Indian bowlers do not like, reach and left-handedness and he used those to produce some stunning results. His team-mate Adam Gilchrist must be the best number seven that ever played the game and ever so often, he produced match-winning innings from that number. He certainly did in Mumbai and turned the first Ashes Test around as well. He averaged more than 50 for the year and that is sensational for someone who bats so low.

South Africa threw up a few candidates for the top batsmen and you certainly cannot look beyond Jacques Kallis who in his stony-faced style accumulated runs with an insatiable appetite. He may have given up a bit of his flair but his class shines through at all times and with an average of around 70 and a lot of wickets to go with those runs, he must be a leading contender for the best all-rounder in the world with only the injury-prone Chris Cairns and Adam Gilchrist for competition in that category.

In contrast to his solidity, his teammate Herschelle Gibbs was bubbly, exciting and in spite of some cavalier shots, capable of playing the long innings that make Test match cricket what it is. 2001 was a landmark year for Gibbs for it marked a triumphant return to international cricket and a place among the best in the game; in Test cricket and in the one-day version. Too often he was criticised for finding new ways of getting out but that is often the company that the most gifted batsmen keep. By the end of the year, he was more solid than he was at the start and with Gary Kirsten forms the best opening partnership in cricket today.

It was also an amazing year for Andy Flower who put Zimbabwe on the world map with its first genuinely world class batsman. He scored runs all over the world, against all attacks including his favourite India but the innings that marked him out in a special league came against South Africa at home where he showed tremendous guts and a great ability to play the rising ball. He averaged over 100 and often did that as the only real batsman in a side that was increasingly under attack for its composition in a troubled land.

Mahela Jayawardena, easily the most talented player to emerge from Sri Lanka since Aravinda de Silva, played some brilliant innings and some frustrating ones. Like Gibbs, he seemed to get himself out rather than leave the job to the bowlers but in between he scored more than a 1000 Test runs and left his mark on the season. He will score many more for he is clearly special.

Completing the list are a pair of batsmen who achieved the most extraordinary feat of the year. On the fourth day of the Kolkata Test against Australia, with defeat staring India in the face, V.V.S. Laxman and Rahul Dravid batted through the day scoring at 4 runs an over. Nobody who was there will ever forget it, certainly the Australians won't for it broke their stunning sequence of wins and gave India the match and later on the series. Laxman made 281, Dravid made 180 and India did not have a day like that in the year. They will struggle to have one like that again.

Once again Mutthiah Muralitharan led the bowlers list with a staggering 72 wickets. Until Brian Lara went after him, nobody really conquered him and he must have been greatly satisfied with the fact that even his erstwhile nemesis, India, found him very difficult to handle. He is in the prime of his career and if he can stay away from injury, surely Courtney Walsh's record must be in trouble. Towards the end of the year, his understated colleague, Chaminda Vaas, broke through the Muralitharan umbrella to produce a sensational sequence that saw 14 wickets in a Test and 8 in a one-day game soon after. Even without that dramatic Test, Vaas had 41 wickets from 10 Tests which is a very respectable number.

Murali's colleagues in the spin bowling trade found a place in their top 10 as well. On the back of one of the most remarkable sequences in bowling history, where he took six or more wickets four times in succession, Harbhajan Singh took the world by storm and though he showed a distinct preference for Indian conditions, his haul of wickets matched Murali's. And even as the world was ready to write off Shane Warne he bounced back in style. By the end of the Ashes season, he was fizzing them like old, putting in as much body as he used to and displaying all the confidence that has made him such a legend.

Australia were clearly the best bowling side in the world and even though they shared the wickets around, they had three bowlers in the top 10. Glenn McGrath had another fantastic year, even by his own standards and once again picked up around 5 wickets per Test which puts him in a very special category. As ever, he was stingy conceding just over 20 runs per wicket and playing the role of leader of the attack with great heart. Jason Gillespie was the other bowling star for Australia often generating pace out of dead tracks in India and turning the match around in a single aggressive spell in England. Having overcome his fitness troubles, he looked dangerous at all times and never flagged on speed. He could well be the bowler to watch out for in 2002.

A couple of English bowlers make the bottom of the list. Darren Gough and Andy Caddick formed a good partnership even if their wickets against Australia were too expensive. And Waqar Younis must find a place even though Pakistan played so little cricket. After being left out of the side so many times he came back in style, not just as captain but as a strike bowler and he features in this list for his tally of 41 wickets from 21 one-day games including a series of big hauls.

At the end of it all though, the player of the season was Shaun Pollock. He hit three centuries, took over 50 wickets at around 22 a wicket and led his side well. He has happily dropped pace to accommodate a more probing line and in the absence of Allan Donald, he raised his game to a different league. Not many fast bowlers have been successful captains but with Pollock something seems to have worked for he is relaxed and leads by example. His batting flowered as well and with his ability to hit cleanly and quickly, he helped provide South Africa the best lower order in the game.