Two Shanes - a champion and a comeback

Cricinfo and Wisden writers select their best and worst moments from 2005

John Stern

Best
The look on Shane Warne's face as he prepared to bowl the final over of England's three-wicket win in the fourth Ashes Test at Trent Bridge. As he spun the ball from hand to hand, his grin betrayed the relish of a real competitor. Australia were poised to go 2-1 down but how he loved the fight and the challenge. He took the relentless barracking from Pommie fans with remarkably good cheer and simply came back for more. While other Aussies whinged and excused their Ashes defeat, Warne paid due respect to his opponents and to the game itself. He is quite simply a true champion.

Worst
The ICC's pronouncements. You cannot tell players how to behave and what spectators can and can't drink at a match while ignoring the implosion of Zimbabwe cricket.

John Stern is editor of The Wisden Cricketer

Dylan Cleaver

Best
In the great scheme of things it hardly rated a mention alongside the heroic deeds of Andrew Flintoff et al, but Shane Bond's successful comeback was a great against-the-odds story. Bond's career has been blighted by stress fractures to his back, the bane of fast bowlers' lives. Once more he defied the doomsayers to come back and bowl above 150km/h. A sight for New Zealand's collective sore eyes.

Worst
The fact he made his comeback on an awful tour of Zimbabwe where the term 'Test cricket', was stretched to its limit. Not only did the cricket range between poor and awful, but New Zealand Cricket took a hammering at home from the public and government, despite being put in an impossible position by the ICC's insistence of its future tours programme being fulfilled. Mind you, it would have been nice if the players offered an opinion on the subject rather than parroting that mindless mantra of "we're just here for the cricket".

Dylan Cleaver is senior sports writer of Herald on Sunday, New Zealand

Tomorrow: Zimbabwe's dark days and Lara's triumph