Australia’s men retained the Ashes in style, farewelled Justin Langer as coach in acrimonious circumstances, won in Pakistan and drew in Sri Lanka, ceded the Twenty20 World Cup to England on home soil and then hammered West Indies and South Africa at home. The women won the one-day international World Cup and Commonwealth Games gold before giving captain Meg Lanning a richly deserved breather. Here’s the best and worst of Australian and world cricket in 2022.
WORD OF THE YEAR
Bazball
As Australia cut a swathe through most of their Test-match opponents while playing a sturdy and at times spectacular brand of the game, England tore up the rule book under new coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes after some barren years, embracing all-out attack and entertainment. Rousing victories over New Zealand, India, South Africa and Pakistan followed, even if it was all too late to contend for the World Test Championship. The 2023 Ashes series will be a cracker.
The moment of victory: Australia outlast Pakistan in Lahore.Credit:AP
THE WINNERS
Pat Cummins’ Test team
Four series wins and one draw, including a groundbreaking win in Pakistan, were fashioned around a series of outstanding individual displays in a team environment freed from the claustrophobia of Langer’s tenure. Scott Boland made key breakthroughs a habit, Mitchell Starc bowled a series of outstanding spells either side of his 300th Test wicket, and Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, Alex Carey and Cameron Green all made major strides alongside the established powers of Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne. David Warner ended a difficult year with 200 in Test 100.
Meg Lanning with the World Cup trophy.Credit:Getty Images
Meg Lanning
Not only did Australia’s long-time captain add another two major trophies to an already brimful cabinet – scooping the 50-over World Cup in New Zealand and the Commonwealth Games gold in Birmingham – she was also brave enough to put her hand up and request some time out from a game that has been her life for more than 15 years. In Lanning’s absence, Alyssa Healy and Tahlia McGrath stepped up to lead grandly in India, allowing the captain to return to the game when she was ready for more mountains to climb in 2023.
THE LOSERS
International cricket
For all the moments to cherish in 2022, the sweep of the year continued an inexorable squeeze of the international game from a combination of market forces and a lack of willingness to see the big picture. The global schedule unveiled in August jammed in global tournaments every year – the better to allow the ICC to sell its rights for a huge $3 billion figure – while bilateral series were scheduled in line with the whims of cricket’s richest nations. At the same time as new T20 leagues cropped up in the UAE and South Africa, adding further pressure to a calendar already bracing for expansion of the Indian Premier League, it was all too much. The struggles of the West Indies and South Africa on Australian soil, two sides who once enjoyed their best days in this part of the world, epitomised a system under strain.
Cricket Australia’s leadership
There were some wins for the game’s administration in 2022, namely the successful mounting of tours to Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Unrest among state associations also cooled for the first time in several years. But whether it was the ugly manner of Justin Langer’s exit, a convoluted process around David Warner’s leadership ban, or a looming plateau in the value of cricket’s broadcast rights, chief executive Nick Hockley and his board were anything but light on their feet. A new chair in 2023, the former New South Wales premier Mike Baird, offers the chance for renewal, even as the question of privatisation rises.
CONTROVERSY CORNER
Pat Cummins faced criticism for a principled stand on climate change, specifically CA’s reliance on the energy company Alinta as a major sponsor of the men’s team. Calls from the usual quarters to “keep politics out of sport” merged with the fall-out from the Langer saga to create a perception of the national team being unloved – the hard figures of attendances and broadcast audiences said otherwise.
Usman Khawaja proved a force on and off the field.Credit:Getty Images
MAN OF THE YEAR
Usman Khawaja
Many had thought his international days were over, but a recall for the New Year’s Test in Sydney reaped a century in each innings. It was the start of a year where Khawaja allied mature batting and life skills to an articulate presence in voicing the viewpoints of an Australia that is now much more diverse than its cricket team. A tally of more than 1000 runs put Khawaja up near the top of the global aggregates.
WOMAN OF THE YEAR
Alyssa Healy
A simply outstanding World Cup in New Zealand, where she coshed centuries in the semi and the final to help Australia regain a crown lost in England in 2017, was the launching pad for a year in which Healy also captained Australia in Lanning’s stead. She ended 2022 sitting in the commentary box and happily critiquing the Boxing Day Test performances of husband Mitchell Starc.
Alyssa Healy celebrates her century in the World Cup final earlier this year.Credit:Getty Images
QUOTE(S) OF THE YEAR
“Just as you have always stuck up for your mates, I’m sticking up for mine.” Pat Cummins knocks past-player criticism of Justin Langer’s exit on the head.
“Everyone was being nice to my face but I was reading about this stuff, and half of it … I could not believe that is what was making the papers. A lot of journalists use the word ‘source’. I would say, change that word to ‘coward’. A coward says, not a source.” Langer took things hard for months afterwards, blaming the media, the players and CA. Everyone, essentially, but himself.
CRYSTAL BALL
Cummins and company have a legacy-sealing year in which they lift the World Test Championship and win the Ashes in England for the first time since 2001.
