Six sad moments in Indian Cricket in 2015

As another year flips on the calendar, it compels us to bathe in the nostalgia of events affecting Indian cricket and its lovers, it reminisces us of every good and evil that happened and gives us a path to march ahead in the right direction.A lot of lessons are to be learned, a mountainous mess is to be cleaned up, behavioral differences to be sorted out, administrators need to step above mere gimmicks of prosaic ideas and, in sum total, Indian cricket needs to firmly establish the faith of its stakeholders.As 2015 concludes and enters into a new beginning, we look back at few of the sad moments for Indian cricket and its loyal stakeholders:

#1 On-field demise of Bengal Cricketer Ankit Keshari

Ankit Keshari lost his life after an on-field collision with a teammate

Just when the cricketing world had recouped from the tragic incident which took the life of Phil Hughes, another promising career came to a halt due to an on-field collision with the fellow player.

Ankit Keshari, Bengal’s Under-19 State team captain and a flowering youngster, passed away after he sustained severe head injuries due to a collision with another player while taking a catch in a Cricket Association of Bengal Senior One-Day knockout trophy.

Keshari, who was given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation after he fell on the ground, was shifted to a nearby hospital where he breathed his last after battling it out for three days. In another fateful, on-field incident, Indian cricket lost its upcoming prodigy and left the cricketing world mourning and brooding about the game’s future and a player’s security.

#2 Dalmiya\'s departure

Dalmiya had put Indian cricket on the world map during his time as an administrator

One of cricket’s well-known administrators and former chief of International Cricket Council (ICC), Jagmohan Dalmiya’s demise was a big loss to the game given the ongoing turmoil. While ICC Champions Trophy was his brain-child, he also served two terms as BCCI President, most recently from March 2015 to September 2015.

Dalmiya’s efficiency as an administrator kept Indian cricket intact in tumultuous times and when it was needed the most, he stepped up to dethrone N Srinivasan and became the chief of BCCI.

In his administrative career, he is remembered for making Indian cricket a self-sufficient entity and engineered tactics to make India a commercial and global powerhouse of World Cricket.

His biggest contribution to Indian cricket was to strike a multi-million television deal with World Tel in the early 90’s that poured in huge money and made BCCI the richest cricketing body in the world.

#3 End of \"Fab-five\"

With Virender Sehwag's (R) retirement in 2015, Indian cricket was at a crossroads

If Indian cricket blossomed in the beginning of the first decade of the new millennium and dominated best sides in the world, it was due to a formidable shell formed by Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman.

Coined as “Fab-five”, these players trampled bowling sides around the world and revolutionised Indian cricket by clinching Tests overseas.

The iInevitable retirement of Virender Sehwag paved the way for “Fab-five” being shelved to the archives and a new breed of Indian cricketers has since emerged.

It was an emotional and forlorn moment for Indian cricket and its fans given the aforementioned players’ contributions in building a cricketing powerhouse. Another important member of the squad, left-arm pacemen Zaheer Khan also pulled down the curtains in the year 2015 which was once again a sad moment for Indian cricket.

#4 India\'s ODI slump

India lost 1-2 to Bangladesh in the ODI series in June 2015

When we look back in retrospect, the Indian ODI team had given for its fans very few moments to cheer in 2015. Beginning with the tour Down Under, India was out of the tri-series without making it to the finals, lost to Bangladesh in their own backyard, lost to South Africa at home and showed sporadic performances in World Cup 2015 and the tour to Zimbabwe.

If the loss to Bangladesh was humiliating, being thrashed by South Africa at home soil signified the plummeting dominance of India’s ODI Squad and losing sheen of Captain MS Dhoni.

Though records suggest that India have won 14 games out of 23 games played this year, they were only able to clinch series against Zimbabwe in the period of 12 months which calls for action in weak departments.

#5 India\'s World Cup exit

India lost to Australia in the WC semi-finals after having played well in the preceding games

In the 2015 Cricket World Cup played in Australia and New Zealand, seldom would anyone have expected India to reach the semi-finals of the tournament. Hitting the scene on the backdrop of a dismal tri-Series including England and Australia in Australia, India changed gears and continued their winning streak which ended after losing to hosts Australia in the semis.

A failure in a major ICC Tournament sucks the blood out of fans and social media platforms were inundated with tweets, memes and jokes on India’s poor show in the semi-finals.

Especially, Virat Kohli’s girlfriend Anushka Sharma was made the “scapegoat” for the poor performance of Kohli in the semi-final and the turmoil boiled as soon as the match ended. Though, a large traction of people extended their support to the Indian cricket team for their indefatigable run in the tournament, the loss was hard to digest for a common cricket fan.

#6 ICC rating Nagpur pitch as \"Poor\"

South African batsmen were clueless on how to bat on the Nagpur pitch

In the recently concluded Paytm Freedom Series between India and South Africa, the third Test at Nagpur opened up the floodgates for debate on the pitch that was offered by the home side.

The pitch was dry, turned and bounced viciously from day one and the match ended in a mere three days resulting in South Africa’s humiliating loss. South African batsmen looked puzzled against the snakelike turns of the pitch and uneven bounce followed by tweets on social media platforms from cricketers’ across the globe criticising the pitch.

If that was not enough, the debate was further boiled when the International Cricket Council rated the pitch at Vidarbha Cricket Association’s stadium as “poor”. It once again surfaced the questions of playing to one’s strengths and the definitions of a “good and sporting” wicket.