New Year wishes

Well, not many people expected that. South Africa routed by an innings and plenty. It’s not often England fans have been able to finish a year with such a celebration, and it won’t be surprising if some haven’t quite sobered up by the time the Newlands Test begins. There’s a New Year party to be had in Cape Town.

This job means I need to be a neutral observer of cricket but yesterday, and especially the fourth afternoon, will go down as something pretty memorable. England don’t win many Tests overseas – in fact, this was only their fourth since beating South Africa in Johannesburg in 2005. They've come a long way since Kingston and their demise for 51.

England’s success (and South Africa’s failure) was still being digested as the roadshow moved west to Cape Town – the highlight of any trip to these shores. Visiting fans had logged on to online copies of the papers from back home, while South Africans pored over their own media’s reaction to the innings defeat.

On my way to the airport a couple of people said, “South Africa got what they deserved”, and there is a growing feeling of unease around the performance of the team. This is a mighty proud sporting nation and defeat doesn’t sit well, especially after the side had promised so much. The next few weeks promise to be fascinating.

The completion of the Durban Test marked the end of international cricket for 2009 (don’t worry, you’ve only got to wait until Sunday for it to start again) and Cricinfo is currently taking an extensive look back at the last 12 months. I don’t want to go over old ground, but suffice to say it’s been quite a year (and quite a decade).

And as it’s that time of year, here are some personal wishes for 2010.

Happy New Year everyone.