Aussies rule, India stumble, South Africa shine
In our second batch of report cards for 2023: India, Australia, South Africa, West Indies, Ireland, and more
India
On the surface, 2023 was no different to 2022 for the men's team. They took part in two ICC events and failed to win either, and it took under 210 overs for the dream of winning a maiden Test series in South Africa to come crashing down. Elsewhere they lost a home Test to Australia on a surface tailored for Indian spinners, and lost a bilateral ODI series at home, also to Australia. Still, the ten-match winning streak in the World Cup was comprehensive and spectacular, and despite the heartbreak in the final, it built memories for the team. They also won the Asia Cup just before the World Cup.
The women's side made history with their first Test win over Australia, but perhaps for the manner in which it caught the imagination of the nation, the men's team's run at the World Cup was a high point. It was not just that they won ten matches on the trot, but they obliterated some pretty strong opposition along the way. Mohammed Shami broke all kinds of World Cup records, Rohit Sharma set the stage alight with his starts, and Virat Kohli's march to 50 ODI hundreds became a national celebration to rival Diwali.
It has been a while now that the India men's side have been going to South Africa thinking it is their best chance to win a first series there. Probably because they have won at least one Test on four of their last five trips, holding the series lead on two occasions. On their last trip, they could smell history, setting the hosts in excess of 200 in the last innings of the second and third Tests. This time, they will have hoped to get over the bar, but it didn't even take three full days for them to lose the first Test by an innings and 34 runs, thus losing any hope of winning the series, reduced to two matches this time.
Australia
It was a staggering year of success for Australia's men's and women's teams. They won all three global trophies that were available and retained the men's and women's Ashes away from home - both teams had the chance to win both series but couldn't close them out.
The men's World Cup win was an astonishing achievement for many reasons. They were doubted from the moment they arrived in India, having played poorly in South Africa. They played the first five games without preferred opener Head and only took one specialist spinner to India in order to carry Head in the 15-man squad. They dropped long-time wicketkeeper Alex Carey and allrounder Cameron Green after losing the first game of the tournament and lost their second by a huge margin to South Africa.
Both the men's and women's sides failed to close out their respective away Ashes series, having been in positions of ascendancy. The men blew a 2-0 series lead with uncharacteristic mistakes at Headingley and The Oval, some self-inflicted, some forced by England's vastly improved execution across the series. Australia were fortunate not to lose at Old Trafford too. The women won the Ashes Test against England to take a significant points lead into the T20I and ODI series but were thoroughly outplayed in all departments to lose both those series 2-1. Australia's women lost only five white-ball matches for the year and four of them came against England in the women's Ashes.
South Africa
South African cricket surged back to relevance thanks to strong performances at ICC tournaments and despite the men's team only playing four Tests in 2023, with a change of captain in between. They did not lose any, and won three, which saw them finish third on the 2021-2023 WTC cycle and start the 2023-2025 one positively.
After 31 attempts across both men's and women's ODI and T20 World Cups, South Africa finally qualified for a final. That they did it at home only made it more satisfying and though the T20 women's side was defeated by Australia, they won everything besides the trophy, restoring public confidence in the competitiveness of the national teams.
Temba Bavuma has become an easy target and a scapegoat for all that goes wrong with South African cricket and this was a challenging year for him. His match-winning century in the Super League game against England in January was long forgotten by the time he got to the World Cup, where he was the least successful of South Africa's top six, and the only one not to score a century. But it was Cricket South Africa's (non)-handling of Bavuma's injury concerns, both at the World Cup and during the Boxing Day Test against India, that created a fracas which should have been avoided. Requests for updates on Bavuma's condition were repeatedly ignored, which only fuelled speculation that he was more unfit than it seemed, and his own admission to playing the semi-final despite not being 100% was met with anger when he was dismissed for a four-ball duck. With waning form and confusing messaging, Bavuma has alienated fans and will need to work hard to win back their support.
West Indies
If not qualifying into the main rounds of the T20 World Cup in 2022 was a body blow for West Indies, their inability to secure a spot at the 50-over World Cup in India in 2023 was the nadir. It was the first ODI men's World Cup without the two-time champions.
Hayley Matthews' record-breaking 64-ball 132 that helped West Indies scale their biggest ever chase in women's T20Is. Matthews also led the way with the ball to pick up three wickets in a game she won't forget in a hurry.
The failure to qualify for the men's World Cup. Several questions were raised yet again over players being allowed to choose the IPL over national duty in the lead-up to the World Cup Qualifiers in Zimbabwe in June. Six of the 15 who travelled to that tournament - Kyle Mayers, Jason Holder, Rovman Powell, Alzarri Joseph, Romario Shepherd and Akeal Hosein - were not involved in the build-up. As it turned out, a camp and day-night games against UAE in the desert were hardly the right preparation for games in dewy southern African winter mornings in June.
Ireland
First the good news. Ireland will be represented at the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and the USA this year, after avoiding any mishaps against the likes of Italy and Denmark in the Europe Region Qualifiers in Edinburgh in July. The bad news, however, remained front and centre of their endeavours in a dispiriting 2023.
At least the year finished on an upbeat note, with Ireland's first ODI series victory in Zimbabwe - a 2-0 win marshalled by new captain Paul Stirling, and sealed in the third match by an unbeaten 82 from his predecessor Andy Balbirnie. But the single greatest relief undoubtedly came in the avoidance of further upset in Edinburgh at the T20 Qualifiers, not least in their opening game, where Italy's Gareth Berg ran them uncomfortably close in a final-over seven-run win.
Ireland's five-wicket loss to Oman in Bulawayo. A target of 282 ought to have been plenty, after George Dockrell's career-best 91 not out, but Kashyap Prajapati set the agenda with a forceful 72, and in the end it wasn't remotely close. Ireland's bid for World Cup qualification had been knocked off course at the first time of asking, and in a brutal itinerary, they had been eliminated within the week, following further losses to Scotland and Sri Lanka.
Nepal, UAE, Namibia, USA, Scotland, Papua New Guinea
Some unprecedented highs, and a few lows - the year 2023 was one where the Associate nations showed their might, at times ruffling a few Full Member feathers.
The story of how Nepal racked up 11 wins in 12 matches to rise from the bottom of the World Cup League Stage 2 table and into the World Cup qualifiers.
The lack of game time for the Associates. Scotland haven't played any international cricket since August; Namibia had none between April and mid-October; and USA played zero T20Is in 2023, even though they are co-hosting the T20 World Cup in another six months.
Afghanistan
It was a bit of a mixed year for the Afghanistan side, but their highs were dazzlingly bright. Unsurprisingly, it was in T20 that they excelled, the only one of the three formats where they won more games than they lost.
After frequent heartbreak against Pakistan, Afghanistan finally got over the line in 2023, winning the first two T20Is of their series in the UAE to secure a win that set their year up. Crossing that psychological barrier would go on to prove useful as they got past the line against the same opponents twice more, including at the ODI World Cup.
Afghanistan continue to be the only ICC Full Member without a professional women's cricket side, something that is increasingly difficult to look past.