Australia's victory ends a boring World Cup and don't let ICC tell you otherwise

To sum it up: 49 matches and only five of them were any good. South Africa vs New Zealand was the best. New Zealand vs Australia (the first edition) was spectacular. Zimbabwe vs Ireland was great as were Scotland vs Afghanistan and England vs Bangladesh. Nothing else in this World Cup came close to be being close. If anything, the final was bizarrely apt – a boring end to a boring tournament. Perhaps New Zealand couldn’t handle the nerves; perhaps Australia were too good on the day – there are many intangibles in sport but the end result was a match that never rose above the ordinary. Australia’s seven-wicket win was the full stop on a tournament that should have ended long ago. [caption id=“attachment_2178921” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  If anything, the final was bizarrely apt – a boring end to a boring tournament. Getty Images[/caption] Yes, there were the great individual battles – Wahab Riaz vs Watson and the Aussies being a prime example. Some great individual performances – Ab de Villiers’ 162, Gayle’s 215, Guptill’s 237*, Southee’s 7-33, Starc’s 6-28, Maxwell’s 102. But very rarely did a match go down to the wire; very rarely were we on the edge of our seats; very rarely did the tournament make it worth getting up at three in the morning (if you in India). Australia were deserving champions no doubt, but was this the kind of tournament that the fans of the sport deserved? Over the last couple of days, the International Cricket Council and Cricket Australia have been sending out emails with the subject line – ‘ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP 2015 THE MOST POPULAR IN HISTORY OF TOURNAMENT;’ It not only seems hard to believe that claim, it frankly seems ridiculous. There were times in the tournament when we had a hard time keeping our eyes open. This is by no means to demean the efforts of the cricketers. It is the way the ICC runs the tournament that is the problem. The ICC’s email starts off with some cricketing numbers: “With two double-centuries, seven scores in excess of 150 and 38 centuries, there has been no shortage of batting prowess on display in Australia and New Zealand over the past seven weeks. And 28 four-wicket hauls, including two hat-tricks, mean the bowlers have played their part, too.” But then we quickly get down to the numbers that matter. 1,016,421 people attended the 49 matches over 44 days. The crowd of 93,013 at the Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground has set a new Australian record for One Day International attendance, surpassing the old record of 87,182 set at the last World Cup Final at the MCG in 1992. Numbers that mean money. According to the ICC, the good news doesn’t stop there. “Broadcast by 44 licensees, in seven languages across 220 territories, the India versus Pakistan group match drew an approximate television audience of more than 288 million in India alone, while the Australia versus England match was watched by 2.1 million people in Australia. “There are 10 radio licensees broadcasting the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 matches live into 80 territories and for those following the tournament on new media, the website has attracted 26.25 million unique visitors accumulating an incredible 227 million page views, which is a significant increase on any previous ICC event. And the tournament app has so far been downloaded 3.6 million times and has been the number-one sports app in no fewer than 48 countries.” And all of that means more money. If the whole point of the World Cup was to make money, then this has been a wildly successful tournament. But if it was to thrill us in a manner only sport can, then this was a big failure. The ICC Chief Executive David Richardson said: “These numbers provide a tangible measure of the success of the event – this Cricket World Cup has been the most followed and best attended cricket event in history. All over the world, hundreds of millions of fans have been enthralled by the quality of cricket on show, the exploits of the world’s top players and the colour of the festival across both host nations.” Well, honestly, he wasn’t watching the game – this game or any other game during the tournament. He was too busy trying to find ways to keep the Associates out of the next tournament. In a video interview on ESPNCricinfo, Michael Holding nailed it. “What have I liked? To be honest, I can find more things I did not like,” said Holding. “How could anyone think that this is the best World Cup ever? There have been maybe 4 good games in 48 games and for that I will not blame the ICC or the structure of the tournament. I blame them for the length of the tournament.” Most of what Holding said is the truth. He said what the fans truly saw and not what the ICC would believe. There are perhaps ways to change this – a shorter tournament, a different format, strict controls of bat sizes, better fields – but all of that doesn’t matter unless the ICC sees the problems. At the moment, they still believe that we have had the best tournament ever. And they couldn’t be further from the truth.