Providing the oomph

Tennis without McEnroe, boxing without Tyson, Australia without Warne: Take the latter out of the equation and you lose, other than some of the greatest talents, sports' roguish charm, an essential farrago of enfant terrible mischief, volatility, drama and an element of the unknown and danger. They are a reason to tune in, get hooked. Sort of like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, without the jelly.

Take Pakistan out of cricket in 2006 and you lose the same. What happened, after all, of any interest without them? Australia won the Ashes - really? Australia won the Champions Trophy - well, blow me down, there's a surprise. England was as successful at ODIs as Americans were at military adventures, the BCCI made more money than most economies and Murali took a gazillion more wickets. You could have penned these forecasts 360 days ago (and put some money on while at it).

What you probably couldn't have guessed was this: that a Test would be forfeited for the first time ever, that an elite panel umpire would be sacked for making, according to the laws, two correct decisions, and that two leading bowlers would test positive for a banned steroid, be slapped with bans and then have those bans overturned less than a month later. All brought to you, as sponsors would have it, courtesy Pakistan.

If you've been following Pakistan since the 80s, the October revolution might have rung a bell or two, bringing as it did a new chairman and three captaincy changes in three days. As would have Shahid Afridi's classic "I'm retiring...wait I'm not" act. Then again, if you'd been following them for the last two years only, you wouldn't have predicted that either. Yes, in the year that Justin Timberlake brought sexy back, Pakistan brought crazy back. They gave cricket its scandal, they brought - before the Ashes - cricket onto front and back pages. They gave cricket its oomph.

On the field, there was real nothingness about their results. They won, drew and lost nearly an equal number of matches (four wins, five draws, three losses) and only won one more ODI (11) than they lost. Test series wins against India, Sri Lanka and the West Indies were all significant but the one they lost - against England - was probably the most significant.

Fashionistas will pooh-pooh the opening problem as 'so last year', except that this year, from the trillion combinations trialed, only one century partnership in all international cricket was produced and Pakistan appeared no closer to identifying a pair. On pitches with bounce - as Old Trafford and Mohali proved - even the rest of the batsmen were befuddled. But we live in fast-changing times, so if brown is the new black, then fielding is the new opening.

Beginning with a horror show in the Karachi ODI against India this year, Pakistan's fielding was as poor as it has been in recent memory. Catches were dropped, mostly by Imran Farhat, as often as Britney Spears' dumps boyfriends, dives and takes were fumbled; the Jonty Rhodes experiment in June was never going to improve matters much but no one thought it would worsen.

Happily, to the certainties in life of death and taxes can also be added Pakistan's endless capacity to churn out fast bowlers. Mohammad Asif lit up the first half of the year and when he was absent, Umar Gul reminded one and all that before his back injury over two years ago, he was actually Pakistan pace's shining light. Add a belated return from Shahid Nazir to existing reserves and a formidable pace attack resulted.

But finally, whose responsibility it will be to deploy them in the future became less clear. Younis Khan was the leading candidate to take over from Inzamam but the confidence invested in him was eroded by his almighty tantrum and a less than convincing Champions Trophy when he did lead. He probably still is the leading candidate, but only just.

New man on the block
Has to be Mohammad Yousuf. He was, after all, a new man this year, in name, faith and beard. Above all, he was a new batsman. Out went the beautiful, wasteful artisan, in came the beautiful, resolute, run-getter. Hundreds were crafted for fun, mostly large ones, in all kinds of situations and he also floated past Viv Richards's records for most Test runs in a year.

Fading star
Shahid Afridi's ill-timed, ill-advised and short-lived 'retirement' ended his most successful period and sparked off another wishy-washy one. Gone was the verve and chutzpah of 2005, replaced by introspection, insecurity and uncertainty. Where to bat, when to bowl? No one knew, so they dropped him.

High point
The Karachi win against India. To recover from nought for three and 39 for 6 was stunning enough but to do it on the back of one of the finest Pakistani centuries of all time was even better. It was also when Mohammad Asif said hello to the world. Of course, you'll come across a few who would pick Darrell Hair's sacking as their high point.

Low Point
Err, which one? The Oval Test , Shoaib Akhtar doing something suspicious to the ball in an ODI soon after, Younis Khan's captaincy tantrum, another board chairman getting the sack, another year without a constitution, Shoaib and Asif testing positive for doping, Shoaib and Asif being banned for doping, Shoaib and Asif having their bans for doping completely overturned ...

What 2007 holds?
On the field, the year begins bright and early with a tough tour to South Africa. Soon after, the World Cup brings a natural end to a four-year cycle. After it, calls for a new captain will be sent out. So too might calls for a new coach: Bob Woolmer's contract ends in June. Ultimately, a little less madness would itself be a considerable triumph.