Kohli, Root, Smith - crickets winners and losers in 2018
Bbc Sport, London
The year began with an Ashes drubbing for England, featured a fairytale summer farewell and ended with Virat Kohli arguing with someone. Again.
Oh, and some Australians got banned for cheating along the way.
BBC Sport hands out the prizes after a tumultuous year in the cricket world.
Player of the year
Surely you dont need to ask?
Already India captain, totem and icon, Virat Kohli proved this year he is unquestionably the best player in the world.
If his returns in Test cricket were impressive - 1,322 at an average of 55 - his one-day international haul of 1,202 at 134 bordered on ludicrous.
He arrived in England this summer with question marks over his claims to greatness. He responded by averaging 59 in a series when most batsmen survived as long as an ice cube on a warm day.
Despite defeat in England, Kohli led India to a first Test win in Australia in 10 years - and they will begin 2019 as they did 2018, as officially the best side in the world.
If New Zealand had played more than six Tests, Kane Williamson - with an average of 67 - might have run Kohli close, while Alyssa Healy won a staggering four player-of-the-match awards in six games as Australia women romped to the Womens World Twenty20 title.
Alastair Cook and James Anderson can accept this award on behalf of their scriptwriter, who delivered an end to the summer so joyful that it made the Shawshank Redemption finale look positively miserable.
From the moment Cook, the holder of almost every England Test batting record there is, announced the final Test against India would be his last, you sensed it might be emotional.
Walking out to bat, taking guard, maybe even adjusting his box - Cook was given countless standing ovations before he sent the Oval crowd into a frenzy with a fairytale farewell century in his final innings.
Anderson supplied the encore the following day with his 564th Test wicket, taking him past Australia great Glenn McGrath as the most successful pace bowler of all time and wrapping up a 4-1 series win.
Cook called Anderson the greatest player of all time. Anderson said the same about Cook. There wasnt a dry eye in the house.
Worst attempt to hide sandpaper down your pants
Cameron Bancroft, take a bow. The Australia batsman wins this from a field of one, although he might ask Steve Smith and David Warner to accompany him to the awards ceremony.
Bancroft was caught during the Cape Town Test against South Africa trying to scuff up the ball using sandpaper - which he then tried to hide down his trousers. All in full view of the television cameras. Bancroft was banned for nine months, while captain Smith and vice-captain Warner - both of whom admitted knowing about the plan - got a year apiece.
Sympathy was in short supply. The Australian and British prime ministers put the boot in, and Smith and Warner blubbed like three-year-olds in news conferences broadcast around the world.
Coach Darren Lehmann said he didnt know about the sandpaper plan and wouldnt resign. Then he did. Needless to say, there were tears there too.
A couple of hefty defeats on that ill-fated tour of South Africa were contenders for this prize - Australia lost the third Test by 322 runs and the fourth by 492 - and they were crushed by 373 runs by Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.
But the biggest thumping of the year was dished out by England, who won the third one-day international against Australia by 242 runs.
The hosts smashed the ODI record in making a scarcely believable 481-6 at Trent Bridge. Alex Hales battered 147 off 92 balls, Jonny Bairstow 139 off 92.
Australia were bowled out for 237, with 13 overs unused. There must have been a temptation for England to let them have another go.
It was Australias heaviest one-day defeat in terms of runs. They lost the series 5-0. The flight home could not come soon enough.
However, at a time when England seem intent on bringing the collapse back into fashion, it simply had to be Joe Roots side who collected this gong. Playing their first Test since being thumped 4-0 in the Ashes, England folded like a cheap deckchair against New Zealand as they were bowled out for 58 in the face of some admittedly excellent swing bowling from Trent Boult and Tim Southee.
It was their sixth lowest total in Test history. The innings barely lasted 20 overs. Five batsmen made ducks. Only two reached double figures.
One saving grace for England was that, from 27-9, it could have been even worse.
A tough one, mainly because there has been plenty of anger on and off the cricket pitch this year. It began with CCTV footage of Australias David Warner and South Africas Quinton de Kock being separated by team-mates in the stairwell outside the changing rooms in Durban.
It continued with a pumped-up Kagiso Rabada shoulder-barging Steve Smith in the very next Test in Port Elizabeth.
Confrontation is like oxygen to the scowling India skipper Virat Kohli, although his mic drop impersonation in an attempt to rile Joe Root at Edgbaston proved fruitless.
The award, though, goes to Englands Jonny Bairstow, who celebrated his century against Sri Lanka on his return to the side by ripping off his helmet, dropping his bat and letting out a roar that would not have been out of place in WWE.
