Worst: Australia's seven-match losing streak

Worst: Australia's seven-match losing streak
Australia's losing streak of seven games in all competitions was their worst since the late 1800s. Sure, the sequence included defeats in Tests, ODIs and Twenty20s, but the manner in which the side kept failing - and kept saying all was fine - just weeks before the Ashes was the most disturbing factor. It wouldn't have mattered as much if the avalanche of defeats hadn't come in the lead-up to the squad's biggest Test series of the cycle, or just a few months before the defence of the World Cup. Both events are carefully planned years ahead by the Australians. Almost everything fell apart in October. In the Mohali Test, and the Melbourne ODI against Sri Lanka, Australia needed to remove some pesky tailenders to seal the wins and provide a peak to the trough. But it was not until they were delivered a hangar full of criticism before the Ashes that they realised the extent of the problem. It was a key reason why the side started the Ashes so poorly.

Jayaditya Gupta

executive editor

Best: The IPL mess
Yes it was depressing and yes it cast a dark shadow over cricket's otherwise healthy state, but it burst a bubble that had grown too large on too little. Lalit Modi's tweet back in April forced into the open a lot of doubts and misgivings about his billion-dollar tournament, and brought many of them under the ambit of India's government and judiciary - and therefore made them subject to rather more thorough and transparent scrutiny. There is even hope that in its Modi-fied avatar the IPL will focus more on the cricket and less on the celebrity. One thing's for sure: no more lingering soft-focus shots of the IPL "commissioner". Things can only get better.