There wasn't much good news around in 2020, but out of the darkness came a ray of hope: cricket finally faced up to its lack of diversity.
It's true that this took a freakish, tragic sequence of events.
If the coronavirus had not already begun its spread, and if George Floyd had not died at the hands of Minneapolis police in May, the issue would almost certainly have remained under the carpet.
But the pandemic put the world on hold and allowed time for reflection. When Floyd was murdered, the reflection turned to anger.
I felt honoured to be part of Sky Sports' broadcast on the first morning of the Test series between England and West Indies in July, when Mikey Holding and I spoke from the heart about our experiences.
I know what we said stopped a lot of viewers in their tracks.
Ebony Rainford-Brent (above) is more hopeful now than she's ever been that English cricket understands the importance of fully representing every member of its community
Its power was incredible and it stirred people up, in good ways and erotickepribehy.com bad.
Michael Carberry had already spoken passionately about racism in cricket, and the Sky broadcast created more space for people like Azeem Rafiq, the former England Under 19 captain, to open up about racist abuse he said he had suffered at Yorkshire.
As black and Asian players revealed prejudice they had faced, one thing became clear: there could be no going back.
The conversation has begun, administrators have acknowledged the problem and cricket is pulling together.
I'm more hopeful now than I have ever been that the English game understands the importance of fully representing every member of its community — black, Asian, the white working-class and, yes, the public school system.
When we first started talking about an African-Caribbean Engagement programme in 2019, the aim was not to sideline areas of the game that have done so much for cricket in England. After all, public schools have supplied so many talented players.
Our aim was simple: to persuade people that cricket was a sport for everyone.
And to do that, we had to break down some damaging preconceptions.
One of the most common was that black people in this country don't like cricket. At least that was one of the reasons we kept being given for the lack of African-Caribbean players in the county game.
Sure, the older generation of West Indian immigrants in Britain loved cricket. But the youngsters? Too busy playing football.
West Indian legend Michael Holding spoke movingly about his own experiences of racism
Rainford-Brent says it's great that diversity is now on the ECB's agenda, but she would like to see change happen more quickly and visibly
This always struck me as suspect, and I'm not just talking as a black woman who fell in love with the game the moment I first hit a ball aged 10 as part of a state school scheme run by the London Community Cricket Association.