As Michael Clarke led Australia decimated their traditional rivals New Zealand by 7 wickets in a lop sided final to win the ICC World Cup for the fifth time they also in the process reduced the 11th edition of this quadrangular event to a no contest.
The 44-day long 49- match tournament failed to come up with any time defining, nerve wrecking contests barring a league match between the two eventual finalists in which Kiwis managed to put it across Kangaroos by a wicket.
No doubt the ICC World cup in Australia and New Zealand survived financially and commercially not because of any scintillating cricket it produced but the predictable format which ensured that India, Pakistan ,Sri Lanka stayed alive till the knock out stages.
It is no gain saying that it was the of South Asia(India, Pakistan Sri Lanka and to some extent Bangladesh) be it sponsorship, TV eyeballs, fans flocking the stadiums to support their teams, turned out to be its life line. But it also exposed the ICC’s overwhelming dependence on Indian sub continent to keep this event going.
But at the end it was Australia which once again demonstrated its dominance in the game with a ruthless but clinical all round display. Most of the pretenders had sparkling of stars but the Aussies turned out to be a professional all round unit.
They were ruthless in their batting, brute in bowling and excellent in fielding and left their rivals far behind in all departments of the game.
It was n surprise that over 40 of the 49 contests were totally one sided and remaining few like India-Pakistan, England-Bangladesh, Ireland-West Indies, or semi final between New Zealand and South Africa provided moments of artificial excitements but never turned out to be a edge of the seat contest.
Though there were records galore but that failed to enthuse the genuine cricket buffs.The small fields in New Zealand helped the host to emerge with all win record in their league and knock out matches but the Kiwis failed to take off when it came to bigger field and in front to huge crowd (93,013.) as it happened in MCG.
India’s dream run in the league like New Zealand looked flimsy and it crashed when the 2011 champions confronted the rampaging Aussies in the semi final.
About Australia’s over all domination, Wire agency Reuters' Ian Ransom puts it succinctly “Captain Clarke retires from one-day cricket with his legacy intact but his team will charge on to the 2019 tournament with renewed belief in their ability to re-generate, adapt and rebound from the stiffest of challenges.
Australia have won four of the last five World Cups, an astonishing record of dominance unlikely to ever be repeated.
“Their ability to roar to a successful World Cup campaign underlined Australia's steely resolve in the face of adversity and restored a dynasty that may prove difficult to break.”
Meanwhile despite International Cricket Council (ICC),chairman N. Srinivasan, hailing the 11th edition of the world cup as “the most popular in history” the council has decided to trim the number of teams for 2019 edition to ten from its current 14-team format to 10.
The next World Cup will be comprised of the top eight in the ICC rankings plus two teams from a qualifying event to be held in Bangladesh in 2018.
According to ICC chief executive David Richardson "We have to make sure we don't put associate members into tournaments just for window dressing."
"The matter will be discussed again at future ICC meetings. As it stands we've entered into an agreement with broadcasters for a 10-team World Cup.
"I want it to be a shop window for the best teams in one-day cricket - whether that be eight teams, 10 teams or 12 teams.
"The debate will still be had as to whether we have 10 or increase it. It's more about giving opportunities to everyone and giving more money to the likes of Ireland and Afghanistan so they can compete against full members.”
"We're putting money into these teams hoping we'll genuinely have 14 rather than eight teams capable of competing."
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