A is for Ashes. They didn’t take place this summer, but that didn’t stop them dominating the conversation.

B is for ball-tampering (alleged), which produced the defining moment of the summer. Darrell Hair was heavy-handed; Inzamam-ul-Haq overreacted; umbrage stopped play.

C is for captaincy. Complicated, in England’s case. David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, called Andrew Flintoff “the man in possession” last week, when Michael Vaughan was still the official England captain and Andrew Strauss had been in charge for 17 successive matches of various kinds. In Tests, the stand-in for the stand-in did an outstanding job.

D is for Darren Gough. England gave him one last fling, which merely showed that the game was up. An effervescent international career had gone flat.

E is for England. They drew one Test series and won the other, and grew from a team into a squad. But in one-day cricket they were mostly hopeless.

F is for Flintoff. Players having a benefit tend not to do much for England, and so it proved: his summer Test haul consisted of 47 runs and 12 wickets. However, it did nothing to dent his popularity.

G is for gambling. Mike Atherton wrote a book on it, and England’s selectors took it up in a big way, naming six unfit players to tour Australia.

H is for Harmison. England’s nasty fastie blew hot and cold, taking 11 for 76 at Old Trafford, nine for 466 in the other Tests. Lopes in like Curtly Ambrose, takes aim like Devon Malcolm.

I is for Ian Bell. After sinking in 2005, he swam this year, making runs consistently and elegantly.

J is for Jayawardena and Jayasuriya. Sri Lanka’s batsmen struggled in Tests, but in the one-day series these two reduced England’s fast bowlers to rubble in contrasting styles — delicacy and dynamite.

K is for KP. Prone still to soft dismissals, yet nobody in the world made more international runs between March and September. And nobody else played that amazing flamingo shot. How good will he be when he starts to put a high price on his wicket?

L is for Lancashire, nearly men once again. They blamed the weather, with good reason. When they finally refurbish Old Trafford, they should give it a sliding roof.

M is for Mushtaq Ahmed. Sussex have a strong team culture, but it was Mushy who propelled them to the county championship title. An all-time great overseas player.

N is for new competitions, the Pro40 and the revamped C & G. Basically the old John Player League and Benson & Hedges Cup without the free fags, they left many fans confused and indifferent.

O is for over-by-over coverage, which has made cricket online much more fun. Ball-by-ball is too much information, as three balls an over are dots. OBO has become the new Test Match Special, with punters sending in e-mail witticisms rather than cake.

P is for Panesar. He took more Test wickets (27) at a better average (26) and economy rate (2.55) than any England bowler. And he endeared himself to the fans more than any player since Flintoff. Perhaps the problem with the one-day side is straightforward: he isn’t in it.

Q is for quicks. Too many of them were missing — Flintoff, Simon Jones, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif (until the last Test) and Rana Naved-ul- Hasan. As a result, the series against Pakistan lacked sizzle. The shortage is global: the world’s top-rated fast bowler is Makhaya Ntini.

R is for Ramprakash. With an average of 103, his twentieth season was his best. Would England really rather send for Robert Key or Ed Joyce when someone breaks a finger?

S is for Sky, which had a monopoly on live cricket for the first time. It needed to get better, and did, by signing Atherton, sidelining Bob Willis and launching the fizzy Cricket AM. But the ECB’s decision to abandon free-to-air coverage still looked a risky one.

T is for Twenty20. Unstoppable, yet still misunderstood. The doubters thought the novelty would wear off: it hasn’t, because it’s a vibrant form of cricket. They also call it a batsman’s game, but it made Stuart Broad’s name.

U is for Urban Cricket. “No-hassle cricket with no rules.” Hmm, sounds like tennis without a net. But it took the game back into the playgrounds and handed out 60,000 bats. Chance To Shine was admirable, too. You wait ages for a good cricket initiative . . .

V is for veterans. On the circuit, oldies ruled: Ramprakash, Mushy, John Crawley, Andy Flower, Lance Klusener, H D Ackerman, even Ian Salisbury.

W is for the (football) World Cup. It threatened to overshadow everything, but was so riddled with defensiveness and dishonesty, it ended up doing cricket a favour.

X is for extras. England conceded 150 of them in five one-day matches against Sri Lanka and effectively said “bye” to their World Cup chances.

Y is for Yorkshire. They boldly fielded two young leg spinners, Adil Rashid and Mark Lawson, who then took all ten wickets in an innings against Middlesex. An inspired example of thinking outside t’box.

Z is for zzzz. Get plenty now, because you won’t have much chance from November 23.