Looking Back 2008

Emergence of Indian
cricket

It all began with the T20 World Cup when Dhoni and his young brigade overpowered their cricket rivals Pakistan in a thriller of a match on 24th September 2007. Dhoni was named the ODI captain of India and he started his proceedings with a fabulous win Down Under.The beginning of 2008 was marred by ‘racist’ incidents involving Australian Andrew Symonds and India’s Harbhajan Singh. Symonds claimed that Bhajji had called him a ‘monkey’. Things, however, were sorted out with BCCI interfering and threatening to pull out of the series. Sledging and appeals for ‘dropped’ catches continued for the entire series.

Emerging Cricketers

Year 2008 has not been a particularly good year for the rookies. Apart from Ishant Sharma and Ajantha Mendis, it’s very difficult to find names that took the cricketing world by storm with consistent performances throughout the year.

Though Gautam Gambhir had already established himself as an ODI and T20 batsman, it was in 2008 that he finally emerged as a class apart in the Test team and also formed a world class opening pair with mercurial Virender Sehwag.

Special Section

A teamman to the core, Tendulkar also did not forget to acknowledge his teammates` contribution as he said "the atmosphere in the dressing room was really very cheerful and that helped a lot too".

T20 Revolution

After the conquest of Perth and the unveiling of the Indian Premier League (IPL), cricket also endured the painful aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks in an eventful 2008. It was a year when Sachin Tendulkar added yet another feather to his cap, surpassing Brian Lara`s 11,953 Test runs to become the highest scorer in world cricket.

End of Oz Dominance

Controversies

They say that self indulgence and self interest were the sole reasons behind the downfall of the great West Indian era in early 90’s.

With the first anniversary of racial row between Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds approaching, the controversial Australian all-rounder ..