Cricket in 2025: South Africa show champions' mentality, but India and Pakistan's hostilities debase the game

This was a year of a few firsts in cricket, and not all of them welcome. Let’s start with the good, because there no dearth of negativity around us, even in the world of sports.

South Africa, the perennial title challengers for decades, finally got to lift a major trophy. And what an apt victory it was – the World Test Championship.

Australia did not have an ICC trophy in their cabinet, but had two major triumphs to allay any fears of losing their edge due to an ageing core. A momentous Test series victory against India – their first in nearly a decade – was the last remaining box that the golden generation of Australia needed to tick. And they did that in such an emphatic fashion at the start of the year, it set off a chain reaction across Indian cricket that cost many players their careers, the reverberations of which are still being felt.

Australia also cut a resurgent England down to size in the ongoing Ashes, tearing apart a hugely promising English side even with key players missing in the first two Tests.

For India, it was a year of extremes as they extended their shocking record in home Tests to five successive defeats to top-ranked teams, while also clinching the 50-overs Champions Trophy and 20-overs Asia Cup titles.

And then, there was the India-Pakistan political drama, played out in all its ugliness, putting such a deep stain on the game that it turned the biggest match in cricket into a sad spectacle of human folly. It was a year when cricket learnt quite a few lessons.

Performance of the year: South Africa do know how to win

The Proteas Test team have been a force of nature for the best part of two years. They won seven straight Tests, albeit in short two-match series, to qualify for the WTC final against Australia at Lord’s in June.

But when they conceded a 74-run lead after being rolled over for 138 in the first innings by Australia’s world-beating bowling attack, it seemed as if