Hope is the thing with feathers...

"Oft expectation fails, and most oft there
where most it promises; and oft it hits
where hope is coldest, and despair most fits."
--William Shakespeare

Past, Present and Future bound together by Time that has no beginning or end to it. Year 2000 came in with so many promises and it delivered its share of the good, bad and the ugly. Glenn McGrath picking up his 300th Test wicket by dismissing Brian Lara at Perth, must be the champagne moment of the year and that was incidentally the second wicket of the most famous of all hat tricks the game has ever seen. Australian men marching on... to their 14th consecutive Test victory is indeed the high point of the year. Year 2000 hurt the morale of the game with the match fixing controversy. But this has been the year of the Kiwis. The minnows of the cricket world for so many years, their men won the ICC Knock- Out Trophy in Nairobi and the Kiwi women gave their very best to clinch the Cricinfo Women's World Cup.

Though the fortune of West Indies cricket team has been dwindling, Courtney Walsh carries on as the leading wicket taker in Test match cricket having surpassed Kapil Dev's record of 434, early in the year. The towering figure of Curtly Ambrose crossed the 400th wicket mark in the English summer and retired gracefully from the game. To his credit, he has been the spearhead of many a victory that the Windies would always cherish. A thousand maiden overs in Test cricket is not a mean achievement by any standards. Before leaving the game, Ambrose had carved out a niche for himself in the cricket hall of fame. The old horse Walsh is still marching towards the 500th wicket. The day when he calls it quits, the game of cricket would miss a great player in action.

Year 2000 has been a landmark year for so many bowlers. Pakistan fast bowler Wasim Akram crossed the 400 mark. His compatriot Waqar Younis who has been denied much of cricket lately, at last got to the 300th wicket. The 'white lightning' Allan Donald from South Africa, McGrath and the wily Sri Lankan spinner Muthiah Muralitharan are the other players who joined the elite 300 wicket club in this year. Muralitharan who has been in phenomenal form throughout the year, went on to pick 74 wickets. Sri Lanka beat Pakistan in a Test series in Pakistan early in the year. The cricket world welcomed the new entrants to the highest level of the game, Bangladesh. England notched up their first Test series win in Pakistan. Year 2000 provided enough sweet moments for many to remember.

Inzamam Ul Haq of Pakistan and Andy Flower of Zimbabwe were the best of batsmen of the year. Both of them scoring more than 1000 runs each in Test cricket. Saurav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar of India along with Gary Kirsten and Jacques Kallis of South Africa dominated the One-Day batting figures. Sachin Tendulkar became the highest run getter in the instant form of the game. Australia was the team to beat in the year 2000. The Aussies have dominated in Test matches and in One-day version of the game. Steve Waugh leads his men from the front with admirable skills and must be looking forward to the Test series in India to be played in early 2001. Australian women too dominated the year till they choked in the World Cup final.

The low point of the year came when South African captain Hansie Cronje admitted to the match fixing charges leveled against him by the Delhi Police. Hansie was banned from the game for life. By the end of the year some leading Indian cricketers like Mohammed Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja were banned from the game for the same reasons. A cloud of suspicion hangs over the career of too many cricketers. What has been most disheartening is the involvement of the underworld. Men who are given a decent life by the game, stooping so low to sell themselves for a fistful of dollars.

The game had lost much of its following as the match-fixing story unraveled many a ugly face. But kids and grown-ups are still playing cricket at all levels with the same passion and spirit that has made the game a religion of sorts. Fallen Idols are the timely reminder to the cricket crazy fan that it's just a sport. I always believed that David Gower's cover drive was worth ten runs than the four when it crossed the boundary line. There is the element of art involved in playing cricket than the brute physical execution, which makes the game a beauty to play and watch. The cricket pundits have been searching for an answer to find out what went wrong with cricket. The answer is within us. The enemy is within us. We have let this game slip away from our hands by addressing to the commercial demands of the game than the game itself. The one-day version is like the Hollywood high-speed action thriller, which churns up more money at the box office.

How good is life, without a little hope? As we go into another year of the third millennium, I hope cricket will survive to provide us with the simple joys of life. The New Zealand women's team exemplifies the spirit of the game and that of the new season. Three cheers to the Kiwis! Yeah! this is definitely cricket.

"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune
without the words,
And never stops at all"

--Emily Dickenson

Seasons Greetings!