Australia won the Cricket World Cup held in the West Indies, as many had expected. With this victory the the Aussies have completed three World Cup titles in a row. The Aussie dominance of world cricket is unparalleled and almost reaching a point where its unhealthy for the game. The good news is that several cricket teams have improved the quality of their game significantly since the World Cup in 2003. The bad news is that the Aussies are still far ahead in terms of consistency, skill and overall professionalism. Ricky Ponting and his men are simply far superior than the rest of the teams combined and this has been the situation for many years.Sri Lanka deserves special credit for their outstanding performance throughout this tournament. Jayawardane has led from the front in all respects and at 29, with several years of cricket still ahead of him, seems to be firmly in-charge of Sri Lankan cricket. Their cricketing future seems bright and one worthy of emulating especially for teams such as Pakistan and India. Bangladesh and Ireland having qualified for the last eight at the expense of India and Pakistan, have plenty to be happy about. New Zealand is a team that seems to consistently progress as far as the semis and they have reason to feel frustrated as one more World Cup went by with another loss in the semis. South Africa return with their “chokers” tag in tact. India, Pakistan and England are back to the drawing board so to speak and have plenty to think about as they plan for the next four years leading up to the World Cup in the sub-continent.
Lastly, this World Cup was poorly planned resulting in poor spectator response. Matches could have been held without huge gaps and the entire World cup could have been completed in half the time. Hopefully, these mistakes will be addressed in the next World Cup. The final moments of the today’s match when the umpires, players and the officials were all in a confused state about the result of the match, was both comical and a sad reflection of the poor management behind World Cricket in general. As the game of cricket adapts to the times, it might be prudent to bring in some professional management at the helm of the ICC and the various Boards of the cricket playing countries.
Pakora Korner 