Luvvie Moment No 1: Michael Vaughan shedding tears as he resigns the
England Test captaincy. “My body is working well but my mind isn’t,” he
sniffed.
Luvvie Moment No 2: Kevin Pietersen hugging everyone within sight as he
takes over from Vaughan at the Oval Test.
Luvvie Moment No 3: Darren Gough saying “I don’t want anyone making a
fuss” as he heads towards retirement, waving to all four points of the
compass as he goes.
Best spat of the season: Mark Ramprakash’s row with Murray Goodwin, who
suggested he deliberately scuffed the pitch while batting. Ramprakash let
the umpires have it as well, jabbing his bat at John Steele. Ramprakash may
yet be suspended for the incident.
Most intemperate answer to a media question: “Anyway, you didn’t bowl
in any Tests because you weren’t good enough.” Vaughan skewers BBC Radio’s
Jonathan Agnew after being asked about his batting slump. Agnew played three
Tests, though his four wickets cost 93 apiece.
Dream Team of the season: 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Graeme Smith, 3 Ravi
Bopara, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 AB de Villiers, 6 Andrew Flintoff, 7 Matt
Prior, 8 Adil Rashid, 9 Steve Harmison, 10 Morne Morkel, 11 James Anderson.
Star bowler No 1: Steve Harmison, who took 109 wicets in all matches
after being dropped by England in New Zealand. He also fractured the thumb
of former England teammate Matthew Hoggard, ruling him out of the second
Test against New Zealand.
Star bowler No 2: Tim Murtagh, who joined Middlesex from Surrey last
year. He took 104 wickets in all cricket.
Best left-arm bowler: James Tomlinson of Hampshire. Tomlinson’s haul of
67 first-class wickets was more than anybody else but he was chosen for only
two limited-overs matches all season.
Best century-makers: Mark Ramprakash and Hylton Ackerman each scored
six first-class hundreds. It was the third season in a row Ramprakash
finished top but it took him 11 innings and two months to score the
hundredth century of his career. Martin van Jaarsveld scored 10 centuries in
all matches for Kent.
Most ducks: eight by Joe Denly, who may be chosen for the England Lions
tour to India.
Best rejection of pipe-and-slippers, No 1: Shaun Udal, who was released
by Hampshire in 2007 only to be lured out of retirement by Middlesex, whom
he helped to win the Twenty20 Cup and a place in the Champions League.
No 2: Tony Frost, who was operating the Edgbaston roller when asked to
come back and keep wicket for Warwickshire. He averaged more than 80 with
the bat as Warwickshire won the second division title.
No 3:Steve Harmison coming out of retirement from one-day international
cricket, the best way to ensure he retains his rhythm as a Test bowler.
Best transfer: Simon Jones, signed by Worcestershire after Glamorgan
offered him only a pay-as-you-play deal, who claimed 42 championship wickets
at 18 apiece.
Most confused cricketer: Darren Pattinson, who in the 10 days after his
surprise Test selection for England told the English media: “I’ve only got
an English passport, so there was never a decision to make between England
and Australia,” while telling qn Australian radio station that he wanted to
play for Victoria and his family wanted to live in Melbourne.
Eight: the number of single-figure scores made in county cricket by
Paul Collingwood and Andrew Flintoff, in 14 and 15 innings respectively.
Flintoff’s tally included four ducks.
Least surprising confession: Graeme Hick admitting “I never had that
cutthroat edge” as he looked back on his 24-year career and 136 centuries,
only six of which were made in the Test arena.
Most surprising confession: Kevin Pietersen conceding “I am humbled”
after being asked to captain England, as stand-in, against New Zealand.
Spookiest occurrence:the Marshall twins scoring hundreds on the same
day, James for New Zealand at Chelmsford and Hamish for Gloucestershire in
Bristol.
Most inspiring work of authorship: Justin Langer’s Seeing The Sunrise.
Least inspiring work of authorship: Alastair Cook’s My Story So Far.
Cook is 23 and has been playing international cricket for just three years.
Umpire Calls Time No 1: having savoured a return to the Test arena in
the England-New Zealand series, Darrell Hair decided he would rather spend
his time as a mentor to the next generation of umpires in Australia.
No 2: after 42 years as player and official, Barrie Leadbeater stood in
his final match.
Played 7, won 5, lost 0: Kevin Pietersen’s record as England’s official
captain. He scored 248 runs, averaging 62.
Best Kolpak player: former Zimbabwe opening batsman Grant Flower, who
at 37 supervised terrific run-chases to deliver Essex the Friends Provident
Trophy and Pro40 second division title.
Shrewdest overseas signing: Hampshire’s acquisition of Pakistan
leg-spinner Imran Tahir. He had previously had innocuous stints at Middlesex
and Yorkshire. When Tahir arrived, Hampshire were bottom of the championship
but two months later they were, briefly, top.
Worst overseas signing: Surrey shelling out £10,000 for Shoaib Akhtar
in a desperate bid to avoid relegation. Shoaib looked overweight, did little
with the ball and got clattered on the head when he batted. Surrey were
relegated anyway.
Weirdest signing: Surrey recalling Chris Lewis at the age of 40, and 11
months after his last appearance. He played twice, scoring 35 runs and
conceding 80 in eight overs.
23.3: Michael Vaughan’s championship batting average for Yorkshire.
Darren Gough’s championship bowling average for Yorkshire was 58.7. Both men
would have been happier had they been able to exchange these figures.
Most predictable punishment: Andre Nel picking up six penalty points
while playing for Essex at Derby in April for using obscene language and
throwing the ball near an opponent.
Cockup No 1: Paul Collingwood ignoring the advice of umpire Mark Benson
- “Do you want to uphold the appeal, Kolpak players in county cricket.
Worst decision: the ECB announcing it had agreed with India, Australia
and South Africa to the setting up of a Champions League. They did not have
a deal and the other three countries went and organised their own league,
selling the media rights for $900m.
Worst innings: Monty Panesar, who got himself run out without facing a
ball to leave Steve Harmison stranded one short of a maiden Test fifty at
The Oval in the fourth Test against South Africa. bearing in mind the spirit
of the game?” - and claiming the run-out of New Zealand’s Grant Elliott
during a one-day-er at The Oval. Elliott had been knocked to the ground in a
collision with bowler Ryan Sidebottom. Collingwood said that the incident
had “haunted” him and contributed to his resignation as England’s one-day
captain.
Cock-upNo 2: Yorkshire getting wrong the registration papers for Azeem
Rafiq. It led to the club being expelled from the Twenty20 Cup.
14.85: Jacques Kallis’s Test average for South Africa in the summer
Tests against England. It was his worst series with the bat in 11 years.
Most astonishing Twenty20 innings: Graham Napier’s brutal 152 from 58
balls, with 16 sixes, for Essex against Sussex. It was the second-highest
innings in Twenty20 behind Brendon McCul-lum’s 158 in the Indian Premier
League.
Most striking decline in first-class batting average:Mark Ramprakash,
down from 101.7 in 2007 to 61.8.
Two: the number of England Test wins in London since May 2005.
Most improved bowler: Robbie Joseph, who claimed more than 70 wickets
in all cricket for Kent.
Most promising bowler: England Under19 fast bowler Chris Woakes, who
took 42 championship wickets for Warwickshire.
Best decision: move by the ECB to reduce number of
