RICHARD HOBSON
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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.
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I will like asse to play fair game they are one sided .
rambo, anna regina, guyana
Hi
Well i say that this was not fair at all for a start, because it was win the toss and win the match, because the rain delayed the play by 2 hours and it gonna be a bit obvious that the game is going to go on at night, and what kind of feild is this without lights, on the wicket camera veiw you couldn't even see the batter apart from his trainers, and when the ball is going that fast of coarse you can't see the ball, thats what helped australia get wickets so quickly. the ICC should of stoped the match and made a 2 day match on sunday and monday. But do u know what? they didnt do that because the will loose money from the tv companies because they wouldn't pay them because its a rematch. So that means the ICC just care about money they don;t care about fair game or anything. So i say there should be a rematch but IT WONT HAPPEN. The ICC will be happy that they get there money but think about the Sri Lanka players they didn't even give them a chance and think about the fans.
Nirmalan, London, England
Even though this world cup has ended in a fashion that seems to be the norm for this lacking logic show piece , i hope the focus is not turned away from what this wonderful cricket team has achieved. A year ago the press and so called experts of the game were barking off how Australia are 'dads army' and not quite the West Indies of the 70's and 80's banter. 3 world cups in a row and two of them undefeated, coupled with the ICC trophy and an Ashes belting within the last year. Case closed on that line of thinking.
I think the best thing for world cricket right now is not to give Ponting and crew anything to feed off for future events. They collectively seem to be inspired from the doubters of thier craft. And they never seem to care what anyone else thinks. Focused, skilled and driven champions tend to do that.
nathan, Banff, Canada.