Player of the Decade
The man who laughed in bowlers' faces
Like Don Bradman before him, Ricky Ponting turned the opposition into ball-ferriers, delighting in his mastery all the while. By Christian Ryan
Bigger, faster, greedier
From a genteel pursuit, cricket became big business in the 2000s, and lost a lot in the bargain. By Sambit Bal
Features
- What can we expect from the 2010s?
- City-based franchises or a world Test championship? Rob Steen lists the best- and worst-case scenarios
- What football and basketball can teach cricket
- The influx of big money into cricket in the last decade has parallels in other sports; there are lessons to be found there as well. By Jayaditya Gupta
- Little cricket, lots of corruption
- In Zimbabwe the game was an afterthought in a decade of near anarchy under the Mugabe regime. By Martin Williamson
- Whatever happened to context?
- Cricket has become a victim of the culture of fun. Now there are no sub-plots, no drama and no rivalries. By Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
- The age of the bat
- Aided by fat bats, flat pitches and the absence of menacing bowlers, batsmen made merry in the 2000s. By Peter Roebuck
- Why 55 is the new 50
- Numbers indicate that the noughties was the best decade for batting in a long, long time. By S Rajesh
- From match-fixing to Modi
- The last 10 years in Indian cricket were defined by three kinds of madness. By Rahul Bhattacharya
- Where is the game headed?
- Harsha Bhogle: Twenty20 can save or destroy cricket. India, the financial backbone, must lead the rest into the next decade with responsibility and vision
- Coaches: eyewash or essential?
- Through the 2000s, the role of coach assumed more importance and complexity than ever before. By Peter English
- West Indies' downward spiral
- In the 2000s, the team went further and faster down a slippery slope, as infighting, apathy and instability came to reign. By Vaneisa Baksh
- The world money made
- The BCCI has seen its power grow exponentially with its bank balance, and the rest of cricket has fallen in line, whether by choice or under duress. By Osman Samiuddin
- The screen-eyed monster
- The 2000s saw cricket's television economy grow unprecedentedly and begin to dictate terms like never before. By Ashok Malik
- A crisis too good to waste
- Gideon Haigh on how the ICC is struggling to remain relevant, and competing for players and money with the BCCI
- Bigger, faster, greedier
- From a genteel pursuit, cricket became big business in the 2000s, and lost a lot in the bargain. By Sambit Bal
- More Features

Lists
- Gilly and Baz go bonkers
- Flintoff's Edgbaston magic, a Tendulkar gem, that 434 chase, and the IPL's fiery start feature in the second part of our performances of the decade. By Dileep Premachandran
- Ricky rampages, Shoaib sizzles
- One of the greatests Test of the decade, four World Cup performances, a seven-for, and a blazing double feature in the first part of our pick of the performances of the decade. By Dileep Premachandran
- A great decade for run-making
- More results in Tests, more rewards for spinners; but batsmen dominate. A look at some significant numbers from the 10 years gone by. By Siddhartha Talya
- The rise of the US, the death of Tests
- Test cricket will die, Twenty20 will kill it; Test cricket will thrive, Twenty20 will peter out: Cricinfo's writers and columnists have all sorts of predictions for the 2010s
- The teams of the decade
- Five Australians and two South African allrounders figure in each of the two world XIs of the decade picked by Cricinfo's jury
- Edgbaston and all that
- England's Ashes glory, a Warne-Tendulkar battle, the advent of Twenty20: Cricinfo columnists and senior editors pick their favourite bits of the decade
- The joy-givers of the decade
- Sehwag takes the bronze, Ntini the silver. Who gets top position? By Rob Steen
- Gone with the 2000s
- The tubby batsman, Sharjah, the crowd invasion and other things cricket lost this decade. By Sidharth Monga
Statistics