Australia Wins Tedious Cricket World Cup

Seven weeks of cricket in the West Indies should be as close to heaven as any mortal is likely to get. The Ninth International Cricket World Cup that just ended was about as far from that as one can imagine. Even the final, which Australia rightly won against a fine Sri Lankan side, was a joke. Shortened due to rain and finished in the dark, it was symbolic of a tournament that failed to live up to even the most conservative of expectations. And no one will be blamed.

Some of the disappointment came from on-field action. The early elimination of both Pakistan and India, two of cricket’s powerhouses, hurt. They simply left their best game back on the subcontinent. The murder of Pakistan’s coach, Bob Woolmer, poisoned and strangled, cast a terrible pall over the tournament and calls into question just what is going on with his side and those attached to it. Some of the sides, Ireland especially, did themselves proud, but does Canada really have a cricket team, or do some Asian and Caribbean immigrants play for Canada?

The hosts, this journal’s beloved West Indies, were shamefully inadequate. Windies fans are the most exciting and passionate (with all due respect to India and Pakistan’s fans, who always challenge them for that title), yet they were priced out of most matches. Worse, the anti-fun patrol seemed intent on ruining the atmosphere anywhere near the cricket grounds. Conch shells, blown like trumpets at appropriate times, had to be registered with the authorities at the matches. Was this a celebration of a great game, or a detention for a class of unruly 10-year-olds?

Full credit to Australia, who proved what the whole cricketing world knew two months ago, that they are the best one-day (and Test?) team on Earth despite the retirements after the Ashes recently. Sri Lanka’s 11 were the only side to give the Aussies a game, and they sparkled throughout. Against South Africa (a nation that didn’t shame itself here), Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga became the first bowler to take four wickets in four balls in international cricket, yet lost. England, well, the less said the better, but they combined with the West Indies to present an exciting end to the Super 8 round in a meaningless game that went to the last over.

Unfortunately, the ICC made money from TV despite all of this. Some money will make it to the players, some will build up local cricket efforts (the West Indies should plan how best to spend that now that there are new cricket facilities all over), and some will wind up in the pockets of Robert Mugabe because Zimbabwe made it to the tournament despite famine and inflation. There will be some ICC fussing over format for next time, and over the future ad rates as the ratings disappointed with the early departures of Pakistan and India. But when all is said and done, a weak product made money. Under capitalism, that’s good enough. For lovers of a beautiful, pastoral game, though, it means another disappointment in four years.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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