Year ends with cricket still in a fix

A round up of all the cricketing action of the year, on the pitch and off it.

LONDON: The year 2010 saw many important events in world cricket. Memorable for reasons both right and wrong, below is a round up of the cricketing year.

There were few more thrilling sights in world cricket in 2010 than Muhammad Amer bowling and there were few more controversial too.The teenage Pakistan left-arm quick's entrancing spell of swing bowling saw Pakistan dismiss Australia for just 88 at Headingley in July.

But Amer and new-ball partner Muhammad Asif, together with Pakistan captain Salman Butt, soon found themselves facing 'spot-fixing' allegations.

Butt was accused by British tabloid The News of the World of orchestrating a betting scam that saw Amer and Asif bowl deliberate no-balls to effect a 'spot-fixing' coup.

The trio's future is set to be decided by an International Cricket Council (ICC) tribunal hearing in Doha, Qatar in January.

Earlier in the year, Pakistan had banned three former captains - Younus Khan, Muhammad Yousuf and Shoaib Malik - after a wretched tour of Australia where they failed to win a single match and Shahid Afridi was fined for a ball-biting incident in Perth.

And in November wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider fled Dubai, where Pakistan were playing South Africa, for London saying his life was under threat from 'fixers'.

On the field. England won a first major one-day title by beating Australia in the final of the World Twenty20 tournament in the Caribbean.

Hopes of an Ashes series win in Australia looked realistic after England's innings and 71-run victory in the second Test in Adelaide.

That followed a draw in the series opener in Brisbane marked by a hat-trick from Australia paceman Peter Siddle.

But Australia levelled with a 267-run win in the fourth Test at Perth.

Nevertheless Australia, so recently the kings of Test cricket, had dropped to fourth in the ICC rankings as 2010 drew to a close.

The year ended with South Africa pressing hard to replace India as the world's leading Test side with an innings and 25 run victory in the first Test at Centurion.

The Proteas' Dale Steyn looked the one genuine fast bowler in the modern game who would not look out of place alongside some all-time great fast bowlers while Jacques Kallis cemented his position as the world's leading all-rounder with some remarkable performances with both the ball and the bat this year.

India's Sachin Tendulkar set yet more batting records by becoming the first man to score 200 in a one-day international and the first to 50 Test centuries.

Meanwhile Sri Lanka off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, bowed out with a record 800 Test wickets before retiring from the five-day game.

Chris Gayle became only the fourth batsman in history to make two Test scores of over 300 with an innings of 333 against Sri Lanka in Galle last month but this was a rare highlight for the West Indies in another struggling year.

New Zealand's 2010 was exemplified by an embarrassing 4-0 one-day series loss to minnows Bangladesh in October.

England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff and New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond finally gave up their struggles with injury by retiring from all forms of cricket while Australia quick Brett Lee quit Tests.

But the most notable retirement in 2010 was of South Africa's Makhaya Ntini, the first black African to represent his country, whose 13-year international career saw a fast bowler blessed with exceptional stamina more than justify his place on cricket grounds alone.

Split-innings matches were trialled in Australia, the ICC announced plans for a new Test championship and MCC experimented with a pink ball in a bid to probe the viability of day/night Tests.