New Zealand's rise, England's steady ship, and women's cricket's wild swing in fortunes
In our first batch of report cards for the year: England, Ireland, Bangladesh, West Indies, New Zealand and women's cricket

England lost just one Test all year, a thriller against West Indies in Southampton • Getty Images
England
It's not the winning, it's the taking part that counts. Who knew that Covid's onset would bring such crusty old Corinthian values surging to the fore? Such was the impact of a season like no other.
West Indies
On July 8, an emotional Jason Holder, along with the rest of the West Indies Test squad, knelt in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. By the end of the day, Holder had career-best bowling figures of 6 for 42. Three days later, thanks also to the batting heroics of Jermaine Blackwood, West Indies created history by taking the lead in the series against England. Holder would go on to sit on a talk show with prime ministers of three Caribbean countries, who told him how proud they were of his leadership and his men.
New Zealand
New Zealand's year started with the disappointment of having failed to compete in Australia, where a patched-up side was hammered in Sydney, but finished with them a few percentage points off being the No. 1 Test side.
Women
The best of women's cricket and the worst of its administration were on view in 2020, and Australia played a starring role in throwing both into stark relief.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh is one of only two Full Member nations not to have played a single international match since the country's Covid-19 lockdown began in mid-March, in what was to have been their busiest year in Test cricket yet. In the end they played just two of their scheduled ten Tests, plus three ODIs and four T20Is between January and March.
Ireland
Prior to 2020, the only times Ireland had been able to schedule a home ODI series of more than two matches were against Afghanistan in 2018, because nobody else would volunteer to play the two newest Full Members; and Zimbabwe in 2019, because neither side had qualified for the World Cup taking place at the time across the Irish Sea.