The World Cup ended in farce, confusion and initially tepid celebrations by Australia, who thought they had won some 20 minutes earlier when the Sri Lanka batsmen went off for bad light with 63 needed from 18 balls. The second finish - Chaminda Vaas peering into the gloom to defend against the spin of Andrew Symonds - was a mockery.

It is easy to say that the competition got the conclusion it deserved. But that would be unfair to Australia, who have dominated from first to last. And also to the 4,500 or so volunteers who have retained their smiles through seven weeks of criticism to serve the region with pride.

The crowd vented its frustration - having been thanked by the public address man for their presence and patience - by booing Percy Sonn, the ICC president, Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, and Chris Dehring, the World Cup chief executive - at the presentation ceremony. This was democracy in action.

Weather determined that the final would be a fractured affair. Australia won an important toss but Sri Lanka could have no complaints about the result. Gilchrist's explosive innings was the equivalent of Geoff Hurst's hat-trick in 1966 as he took batting into a different league on the biggest one-day occasion.

To their credit, Sri Lanka only briefly threatened to capitulate in the manner of New Zealand and South Africa in the semi-finals. If it is any consolation they were comfortably the second-best side in the Caribbean. Had they batted first here, then the contest would surely have been closer.

So Australia have become the first side to win three successive World Cups. They will take an unbeaten run stretching 29 games into the subcontinent in 2011. A rather different side will try to extend the sequence - no Gilchrist, Hayden or McGrath for a start. But only a mug would bet against regeneration.