Year in Review, 2012

Sometimes the best, the greatest, the mightiest and even the legends fall. 2012 saw a few such geniuses fading away to become a patch of the players they were. Ajith Ramamurthy has selected a 'worst of these best eleven' and it sure makes for some very interesting reading!

2012 might have been the worst year for New Zealand cricket but for some optimistic fans, this period of darkness offers a slight ray of hope.

One set of events has overshadowed all other cricket-related factors this year, the retirements of some of the giants who dominated in the game in the late 90s and the early 2000s.

du Plessis' match saving innings, Kohli super-human effort against SL, Samuels' brilliant knock in the WC final, Rehman's superb bowling against England and Perera brilliant spell against Pakistan feature in out list of Best Individual performances in 2012.

The standoff between KP and Andy Flower, Yuvi's cancer fightback, The retirements of some of the biggest names in the game, KKR winning the IPL and the standoff between Gayle and WICB feature in our list of Newsmakers of the last year.

India U-19's triumph, Bangladesh's Aisa Cup performance, Pakistan trouncing then World No. 1 Test side England, South Africa's rise to the top and WI's T20 WC triumph feature in our top 5 team performances of the year.

Rangana Herath, Graeme Swann, Vernon Philander, Saeed Ajmal and Morne Morkel feature in our list for Top Five bowlers of the last year across all 3 formats.

Michael Clarke, Hashim Amla, Virat Kohli, Kumar Sangakkara and Marlon Samuels make up our Top Five batsmen of the last year across all 3 formats.