By Scott Heinrich BBC Sport Online

Ben Hollioake's death

The cricket world was shocked in March when a car accident in West Australia tragically claimed the life of Ben Hollioake.

Before the crash Hollioake's England career had been far from over, and the team in the middle of a Test in New Zealand finished the match with only half of a heavy heart.

Hollioake's brother Adam contemplated retirement from the game, but carried on and proceeded to skipper Surrey to championship success.

He named his daughter, who was born in May, Bennaya, a joining of the words Ben and his dead brother's girlfriend Janaya, who was seriously injured in the crash.

Bomb blast in Karachi

A suicide bomb attack at New Zealand's hotel in Karachi cut short the Kiwis' tour of Pakistan.

Fleming was reduced to tears on his return home

It also cut short the lives of 14 people and showed that cricket was not exempt from the danger of our times.

No team has toured Pakistan since then, leading the Pakistan Cricket Board to make seven-figure compensation claims to the ICC for revenue lost.

None of his team were injured, but New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said memories of the blast will haunt him forever.

"I saw things people shouldn't see," a tearful Fleming said on his return home.

Champions Trophy final

Cricket, always at the mercy of the elements, came off second best as the Champions Trophy was denied a satisfactory resolution.

Weather won the day in the Champions Trophy final

It was not through lack of trying, with the decider between Sri Lanka and India twice rescheduled to no avail as torrential rain persisted in Colombo.

It denied local fans a much-anticipated sub-continental showdown and resulted in the trophy being shared.

Leading Indian cricket figures called for a rule change after their team were twice forced to forfeit commanding positions in order for the matches to be re-started the following day.

First day of first Ashes Test

It is not often that five-Test series are decided in one day.

Hussain rued his decision to send Australia in to bat

But if England held out much hope of an upset after a shattering first day in Brisbane, they were alone.

England won the toss, but Australia may as well have after they hammered 364 runs for the loss of only two wickets.

It banished any vestiges of Ashes hype at a stroke - and proved a reliable precursor to what was to follow as England lost the series in three Tests.

Crowd trouble in India

The first three one-dayers in West Indies' triumphant series win were blighted by crowd disturbances.

Windies playersw feared for their safety in India

Bottles were thrown onto the pitch and fires lit in the stands in the opening match and Windies' fielder Ramnaresh Sarwan was struck by missiles in the next.

Tensions reached boiling point in the third game when a bottle thrown at Vasbert Drakes prompted the visitors to march off the pitch and end the match.

The Duckworth-Lewis method was controversially used to determine the result, with India gaining a pyrrhic victory.

A West Indies protest was dismissed, but their disappointment was short-lived as they went on to win the series.