All well at the top of the table?

When the mighty fall it's news, and nothing quite said it for me in 2010 as Australia's dramatic downfall did. They were expected to go into decline but not quite into disintegration. The Aussies are normally the chin-up chest-out variety of mankind, but a succession of defeats tests even the mightiest of spirits. Australia's confidence plummeted. They are not as bad as they look - a state of mind they have induced in the opposition but rarely experienced themselves.

Interestingly the replacements for the greats aren't quite there. To some extent that is understandable: if they were easily replaced the greats wouldn't be regarded that way, but Australia's first-class cricket isn't throwing up tough, sound players. Marcus North was a battler, but if he was representative of the middle-order strength of Sheffield Shield cricket, there is a little more trouble on the way. Brad Hodge's interview was the strongest statement by a middle-order player in the year.

Australia did two very un-Australian things in 2010. One, they assumed the Ashes were lost with three to play. And I wondered what battlers who wore the coat of arms featuring the kangaroo and the emu, two species that cannot take a backward step, had to say about that. And two, they lived in the past, what with all the exhortations to Shane Warne to make a comeback. One of the things I have always admired about the Aussies is that they always looked to make the best of a situation and not lose too much sleep wondering why they got there. Maybe behaviour patterns of people low on confidence are identical across cultures.

Australia's downturn coincided with England playing their best cricket since I started following it. English cricket has rarely symbolised steel: there have been some tough individual cricketers but collectively they tended to talk better than they fought. They produced outstanding cricket writing, rarely outstanding cricket. But now there is steel there. I don't know how much of it is Duncan Fletcher's doing but I have long admired Andy Flower, who has been the perfect coach. His influence has been felt but he has rarely been seen or heard. And England didn't mind picking tough but understated cricketers like Jonathan Trott, who has been quite an unsung hero for them.

England's resurgence makes for a good three-way tie at the top of the table. From the demographics you might think that India have seen their best cricket, with a lot of ageing stars around, while England look to be on the way up and should fancy having a real crack at No. 1. The best balance, though, probably exists in South Africa - though they lost the last Test of the year. Jacques Kallis has been their player of the decade, probably their best ever, and the only allrounder in world cricket. His exit, when it comes, will be a blow that will test them.

India's batting is ageing, but only on paper; otherwise, like good wine, it is getting better, certainly with Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman. And surely it should escape nobody's attention that Rahul Dravid had a huge century two Tests ago. For India to hang on to this position they need Zaheer Khan to be fit and on the ground, for he seems to catalyse India's younger bowlers, some of whom are vanishing as quickly as they come. It is a worry and a threat, a bigger threat than that posed by franchises and commissioners, who seem to occupy administrators' minds for far too long.

When the top four or five teams are playing, Test cricket seems in good health, even vibrant. But five teams cannot sustain a game and the descent of New Zealand and Pakistan will add to the threat. Already West Indies are being buffeted - by poor quality and the inability of the administration to prevent players from missing Test cricket for 20-over cricket. Theirs will be a long climb up, if indeed there is a climb.

Pakistan represented the tragedy of the decade. Leadership and vision are the issues there, and those seem far more difficult to find than mesmerising bowlers or attacking batsmen, who keep jumping off buses. We thought that the absence of international cricket on home grounds would be a challenge but keeping the structure together seems tougher. The fixing saga hurt people but didn't surprise them, and while the ICC does its best to keep the PCB's finances afloat, the real initiative must come from within. They must make news on the field, not around it.

Tendulkar ended the decade on a high, as he tends to do with decades. Fifty hundreds was considered unthinkable but like with the mile record, it might spur at least one other, Jacques Kallis, to get there.

The decade ahead will test all forms of the game: Test cricket for its longevity and relevance to a new generation, one-day cricket for its very survival, and Twenty20 for its sustenance. But in the land of its birth and their traditional opposition, in Africa, and in the financial nerve centre, people still want to watch it. It is a good way to start a new decade.