2015 recap: An unsatisfactory year for Indian cricket

Mumbai Indian cricket went through another disheartening year both on and off the field starting with the national side failing to defend its World Cup title to Indian Premier League IPL sides Chennai Super Kings CSK and Rajasthan Royals RR being suspended by the Supreme Courtappointed Justice Lodha Committee in the spot fixing and betting scandalCohosts India who had won the World title after 28 years in 2011 under the leadership of Mahendra Singh Dhoni failed to defend it in March 2015 as the visitors went down to Australia in the semifinals by a big margin Cohosts Australia went on to clinch their fifth World title beating New ZealandVirat Kohli and MS Dhoni Pic AFPMore than the Cup loss that shook the sport in the country was when the cashrich Twenty20 tournament saw a new low with its starstudded teams being suspended for two yearsBoth franchises officials and coowner Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra both of whom were earlier found guilty of betting were suspended for life from any cricketing activity undertaken by the Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCIFollowing the suspension the games governing body in the country had to bring in two new teams Pune and Rajkot for the tournament to make it a competitive oneBesides controversies surrounding the game off the field in the country the national teams onfield performance too began on a wrong note at the start of the year with India somehow managing a draw against hosts Australia in fourth and final Test eventually losing the series 02This was soon followed by a dismal show in the triseries involving England and hosts Australia where the Dhoniled side failed to win a single matchThe loss was followed by heartbreak for millions back home as twotime World Cup winners failed to defend their title on foreign soilNext up was the flamboyant T20 league in the country which paved the way for both fans and players to start afresh Mumbai Indians clinched their second IPL crown beating CSK at the iconic Eden GardensBut the Indian teams misery continued as they went down to a well organised hosts Bangladesh 12 in the ODI series after drawing the lone TestNext it was a chance for the youngsters to prove a point as the team flew to Zimbabwe for threematch ODI series where they won all three and managed to win one and lost one in T20 encounterIndia then toured Sri Lanka for a threematch Test series where the visitors came out victories 21It was followed by over twomonthlong South Africa tour of India which started on a disappointing note as the hosts lost both the T20 and ODI seriesThe longest format of the game was left to restore some pride and the fourmatch Test series saw India make the best use of the home conditions by producing rank turners to outplay the Proteas 30 in styleThe pitch in Nagpur was the centre of all controversies as critics across the globe hit back at India for producing such unplayable conditionsSwashbuckling batsman Yuvraj Singh made a comeback to the Indian team after more than a year when he was named in the Indian T20 squad for the limitedovers series in Australia next monthThe lefthander returned to national reckoning thanks to a series of impressive performances in the Vijay Hazare trophy including a scintillating 83ball 98 against Services which helped Punjab qualify for the knockout stages of the tournamentThe country saw plenty of controversies off the field during the year with the acrimonious relationship between India and Pakistan resulting in the proposed bilateral series being cancelledThe BCCI and the Pakistan Cricket Board PCB had signed an MoU last year agreeing to play a total of six bilateral series between 2015 and 2023 The first of these were to be hosted by the PCB in the United Arab Emirates UAE in DecemberBut with BCCI president Shashank Manohar reluctant to play in the UAE the PCB agreed to host a limitedovers series in Sri Lanka The BCCI asked the Indian government to play the seriesBut the government did not come up with a decision which ultimately led to the series being cancelledAllegations of corruption within the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association DDCA also created a storm with the Delhi government launching a probe into the bodys financial affairsThe ruling Aam Admi Party AAP accused former DDCA president Arun Jaitley of overseeing massive financial irregularities during his 13year tenure which ended in 2013 and demanded his resignation as Union Finance MinisterFormer India player Kirti Azad also held a press meet where he alleged that the DDCA gave contracts to fake companies paying them crores of rupees in cash and had fudged the audit of accountsHe also played a video produced by WikiLeaks4India which claimed that some of the companies favoured by the DDCA had given fictitious addressesAddressing the media with former India captain Bishan Singh Bedi Azad sought an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate into the working of the DDCAThe row led Jaitley to file a defamation suit in the Delhi High Court against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders seeking Rs10 crore in damagesAbove all the keeping aside of all controversies surrounding the game history was made in the world of cricket when for the first time in the international level a day and night Test match was played between hosts Australia and New Zealand with the help of pink ball in Adelaide in November Thousands turned up to witness the game take giant steps to the next levelThe year also saw Australia speedster Mitchell Johnson retire from the game after a successful 10yearlong careerJohnson the countrys fourth highest Test wickettaker finished his career with 313 Test wickets behind only Dennis Lillee 355 Glenn McGrath 563 and Shane Warne 708 on the list of Australias greatest wickettakers