2013 Year in Review

JANUARY

Farewell, Mr Cricket

Veteran middle-order stalwart Mike Hussey shocks Australia by announcing his retirement. With two hundreds already to his name through the 2012-13 summer, Hussey cites a desire to spend more time with his family as the key reason behind his decision to call it quits. He leaves the game with 79 Tests, 19 hundreds, an average of 51.52 and a reputation as one of the game's great gentlemen.

Samuels v Warne showdown

Shane Warne unleashes a tirade of abuse on West Indian batsman Marlon Samuels during the Melbourne BBL derby, while wired up as part of Fox Sports' on-field commentary. Cue shirt grabbing, bat throwing, and general histrionics from both parties. Samuels ends the night retired hurt after being felled by a Lasith Malinga bouncer, while Warne is fined $4500 and suspended for one match.

FEBRUARY

Sthalekar goes out on top

Veteran Southern Stars allrounder Lisa Sthalekar receives the perfect send-off from the game, winning the women's ICC T20 World Cup against West Indies in India. "To finish my international career by playing in a successful Women's World Cup in the country of my birth is quite special for me," Sthalekar said. "I feel that this is the right time for me to retire." The 34-year-old leaves the game as the only woman to achieve the one-day international double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets.

MARCH

The lowest of lows

By the end of this tour, Michael Clarke's side bears little resemblance to the confident outfit that left these shores ambitious about a rare Australian success in India. Clarke himself is affected by his chronic back injury and forced to return home for treatment, missing the final Test. By then, it is all over anyway; Australia are ultimately thumped four-nil as Shane Watson becomes Australia's 44th Test captain. Amazingly, Watson had missed the previous Test through suspension – part of the 'homework-gate' quartet (alongside Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson and Usman Khawaja) who had been suspended by coach Mickey Arthur for failing to deliver a required presentation. 

Punter's journey completed

He had to wait two decades for it, but in his last summer in the game, Ricky Ponting finally adds the Sheffield Shield to his bulging trophy cabinet. Unable to find form against South Africa, Ponting nonetheless enjoys a splendid season with Tasmania, winning the Shield player of the year for his 875 runs at 87.50. "I said when I retired from international cricket it'd be great to give this one more crack and try to win a title with Tassie," Ponting told ABC Grandstand. "I've lost a couple, I lost the one in Sydney (1993-94) and lost the one up at the Gabba last year so it's very special."

MAY

The wild world of Warner

Before making tons for fun in the Aussie summer, David Warner does himself few favours in the murky worlds of social media and English nightlife. First, Warner sends out a tweet criticising journalist Robert Craddock, which leads to a Twitter war with another journalist, Malcolm Conn. That proves merely the curtain-raiser to the main event, as Warner is then at the centre of what quickly becomes the infamous Walkabout incident with England's Joe Root. The dashing opener is fined $11,500 and suspended until the beginning of the Ashes.

Improved pay deal for Southern Stars

Cricket Australia today announced a restructuring of the contracting system for women’s international and state cricket to make the Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars some of the best paid female athletes in the country. Minimum retainer pay increased 500% to $25,000 with a top tier of $52,000 while daily tour payments also increased. Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland said: "We are still working towards the day when Australia's female cricketers will be able to earn a full-time, professional living from cricket. But the performances of our female stars justify this step and the day will come when future, full-time professional female cricketers will look back and thank those who went before them."

JUNE

Cricket welcomes a new broadcast partner

After a prolonged period of negotiations, Cricket Australia and Channel Nine come to a five-year, $450m deal for international cricket broadcasting rights. Channel Ten join the party, signing a five-year, $100m deal to broadcast the KFC T20 Big Bash League. "Cricket is the soul of summer – nothing beats it," CA CEO James Sutherland said. "Our multiple formats attract a diverse audience and also offer broadcasters the bonus of a great launch pad for each new broadcast year."

Arthur sacked, Lehmann welcomed

In hindsight, it's easy to call it a masterstroke. At the time, it was more a move that underscored Australia's post-India turmoil. Just a fortnight out from the England-based Ashes, coach Mickey Arthur is sensationally sacked, with Australia A batting coach Darren Lehmann appointed to the top job. "There won't be any ongoing problems," Lehmann said. "We'll get everything right on the field and off the field. The team is going to play a certain way, an aggressive brand of cricket that entertains people and fans but also gets the job done on and off the field."

JULY/AUGUST

Agar's record-breaking debut

Lehmann's first shock selection comes immediately, in the form of Western Australia's teenage spinner Ashton Agar. But the real surprise is still to come. In the opening Ashes Test at Trent Bridge, the little-known teen arrives to the crease with Australia reeling at 9-117, and peels off a stunning 98 from 101 balls – the highest-ever score by a Test No.11. "Darren Lehmann told me to bat the way I know how to bat and he has told the whole team to bat in their own natural styles," said Agar. "That is what I tried to do, take the game on."

That damned DRS

The Decision Review System comes under its most intense scrutiny, in the Ashes opener in England. Stuart Broad edges Ashton Agar, the chance is snaffled at first slip, Broad stands his ground, and is given not out by umpire Aleem Dar. The Australians have used up their two allocated reviews, and Broad survives. The moment changes the course of the Test, and has long-lasting consequences – Broad's hostile welcome at the Gabba five months later highlights as much. In the third Test, the DRS controversy erupts again – this time Usman Khawaja is the victim of another howler.

AUGUST

Sarah Elliot, super mum

Southern Stars No.3 batter Sarah Elliott makes a sensational return to the Test side with a gritty 104 in the women's Ashes Test at Wormsley. The feat is made all the more impressive by the fact it is achieved between breastfeeds of her nine-month-old son, Sam. At the close of play on day one, Elliott is 95 not out. "I'm still getting up a couple of times a night to feed so I'm hoping tonight will be the first night he sleeps through," she grinned.

Finch's T20 flyer

Australia's miserable tour of the UK has at least one bright note, delivered emphatically by Victoria opener Aaron Finch in the first of two Twenty20 internationals. Finch smashes a world record 156 from just 63 balls, including 14 sixes – also a world record – in Australia's total of 6-248. "It was special striking from Finch, to hit 14 sixes in an innings," said opposing paceman Stuart Broad. "I think we can say we tried everything at him. He just played everything fantastically well."

SEPTEMBER

Fawad's giant leap

Pakistan-born Victoria leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed gains Australian citizenship and an Australia ODI cap shortly after, having first arrived in the country as an asylum seeker in 2010. Ahmed, 31, plays three one-dayers for the national side, picking up three wickets and creating a talking point by refusing to allow alcohol sponsorship on his team uniform in line with his Muslim faith. "I have never had the drink in my life," Ahmed said. "There is no contact with alcohol for me, even I am not wearing the logo on my cricket shirt."

WACA whacked

News that the Perth-based WACA Ground will not receive a Test match in the 2014-15 season is met with disappointment by many. The venue, which first hosted a Test in the summer of 1970-71, and has played host to some of cricket's most memorable moments, misses out due to the fact that only four Tests will be played in the 2014-15 Australian summer. During the third Ashes Test in Perth, WACA administration announces it has abandoned plans for the ground's redevelopment.

OCTOBER

RYOBI Cup makeover

A hectic summer calendar results in the RYOBI Cup being shifted forward – with the whole tournament based in New South Wales and played through the month of October. Queensland win the tournament, beating NSW in the final at North Sydney Oval, but it is David Warner who again grabs the headlines – this time for the right reasons – as he crashes three centuries, including a record 197, to push for his return to the Test side.

Tassie boys make it big

With Michael Clarke ruling himself out of the India ODI tour due to his back problems, T20 skipper George Bailey again takes the reins – but it is with the bat that he really makes his mark. Bailey's 478 runs are the most by a captain in a bilateral ODI series, and for good measure, his Tasmania team-mate James Faulkner steps up in the final match and smashes the fastest-ever ODI ton by an Australian, from just 57 balls.

NOVEMBER

Little Master pulls up stumps

There were plenty of cricketers running around who had never known life without the presence of Sachin Tendulkar in the India Test team. Debuting as a 16-year-old in 1989, Tendulkar loomed over the sport as a colossus for more than two decades. Finnaly he draws curtains on his record-breaking career in November, playing his final Test at Mumbai, his home ground, and leaving the game with 100 international hundreds – a mark that may never be beaten.

Aussies mark their turf

Following their three-nil Ashes defeat in England, Australia head into the second Ashes campaign of the year as underdogs. After four days of action at the Gabba, that tag is unequivocally erased. A 381-run thumping of England, achieved on the back of a devastating nine-wicket haul from Mitchell Johnson, is a sign of things to come. The tourists have no answer to Johnson's explosive pace and intimidating barrage of bouncers, while Michael Clarke also shows a harder edge when he is heard on the stump microphone telling England tailender James Anderson to "get ready for a broken f---ing arm".

DECEMBER

King Clarke

Allan Border Medallist in February, Wisden Cricketer of the Year in April … and in December Michael Clarke completes a rare trifecta by being named the ICC Cricketer of the Year. "I was very surprised, to be honest, I think probably because there are so many guys who are playing so well around the world at the moment," Clarke told cricket.com.au. "I definitely didn't expect to have won this award but it is a prestigious award and an honour, and something I'm certainly proud of."

The urn returns!

With Darren Lehmann pulling the strings, Michael Clarke leading the way, and Mitchell Johnson unleashed, Australia turn the tables on England in thrilling style, taking a four-nil lead into the new year. It is a scoreline seemingly unthinkable only six weeks earlier, yet England, hampered by the departure of Jonathan Trott, the retirement of Graeme Swann and the poor form and axing of Matt Prior, are a shadow of their confident selves from the previous series. Australia meanwhile, head to Sydney with one things on their minds – a series whitewash.