A dismal show

Usually, tournaments like the cricket world cup are remembered for who won them. This time, however, there will be at least three other competing elements.

The first is the mysterious death of Pakistani coach Bob Woolmer. The second is the shockingly early exit of India and Pakistan. And the third is the record low attendance and viewership for a tournament of this magnitude.

Also, it was "" as practically everyone including the players has been complaining "" far too long. It went on for nearly 45 days, nearly 15 days more than it should have.

As far as Bob Woolmer's death is concerned, only the naïve will fail to see that there has been what amounts to a deliberate effort to brush it under the carpet until the tournament is over. This has not prevented either speculation or leaks. The last of these is that a suspect has been identified, caught on the CCTV. It is extraordinary that an analysis of the footage should have taken nearly a month. After all, only about eight or ten hours of tapes had to be scrutinised.

Also, shifting the inquiry to London was another ploy to take the attention away from the West Indies where the tournament was held. The cricketing world now awaits an arrest. The matter has been treated most shoddily and shabbily, and it is time amends were made without any further delay.

If nothing else, the admirers of Bob Woolmer "" and there were a few million "" need to know whether he died of natural causes or was, in fact, murdered. It is completely nonsensical that the fans have been kept guessing about something as basic as this.

If Woolmer's death was a huge shock, only less so was the ignominious exit of India and Pakistan even before they reached the Super Eight stage. Each had a bad day very early in the tournament and was eliminated. But if one looks at the performance of some of the other teams, they were lucky only in that they didn't suffer the same fate in the early stages.

There were two consequences of this: first, the Super Eights became far less interesting; second, the semi-finalists were known almost beforehand. There was never any doubt that Australia, Sri Lanka, South Africa and New Zealand would defeat England, West Indies, Ireland and Bangladesh.

Thirdly, given the fact that over eighty per cent of the fans and television viewers are in south Asia, and further that everyone is agreed that sport is to be market-driven, holding the tournament in the West Indies made very little sense whichever way one looks at it.

Because of the time difference, the timing of the matches was such that even the most die-hard fans in south Asia would not have watched the whole game. With India and Pakistan out only the insomniacs watched the
second innings and that too rarely till the end. Also, as pointed out by Sir Viv Richards, the ICC made a huge mistake in not permitting music to be taken into the stands. This is like not letting beer into the stands in Australia, idlis in Chennai, or kebabs in Pakistan. This and high ticket prices ensured very low attendance.

None of this happens in any other sport, such as say, football, which, in any case, is in a different league where popularity is concerned. All in all, this was a dismal World Cup. Even the winner's jubilation will be tempered by this knowledge.