May 03, 2007	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 15, 1428

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Nothing sums up the grotesqueness of the World Cup in the Caribbean more eloquently than the psychedelic events that accompanied the grand finale. To sum up briefly the events of that weird Saturday, they went ahead with the toss just as the clouds gathered atop the Kensington Oval, a stone's throw from the azure Caribbean. Ponting won and decided to bat. On cue the heavens opened up and there was this delay.

The Aussie camp followers (Ian chappell, Dean Jones, Michael Slater) to a man, cried foul - the toss should not have been held so early and that Punter should now have a second call. The shortened game would favour the Sri Lankans since they would be able to plan their strategy and so on and on.

Now that the match started amidst the Gilchrist pyrotechnics, all was forgiven and the "well-oiled machine" theories took over. But this was only the start of the hilarity. With the Lankans batting, the Bajan clouds opened up again for a brief frivolity; the match stopped and resumed but with the umpires having apparently forgotten to tell the fielding captain about the reduction in overs. Only two missing but why not tell the players.

What about red cards for umpires or at least haul up before the match referee! And then the climax in the Barbadian darkness. And what a climax! One side the yellow shirts are celebrating, on the other, the Lankans are coming out funereally with bats held high to resume the doomed innings. Who forgot to tell the umpires the rules about resumption the following day? What an unholy mess.

Yes sure, we all knew the Aussies would win but not in this messy fashion surely. What had begun with a whimper was ending in a sort of cosmic deflation. The tournament was carrying a lot of dead weight - too many teams; too much disparity of performance, and for heaven's sake too long. Even the hard core aficionados of the game were calling it a day (or more accurately, night) especially in the cricket-obsessed sub-continent. Yes this might have had a lot to do with the exit of the two arguably most passionately supported teams in the cricketing world, both from the sub-continent.

But more of that later. Let us third world Indians and Pakistanis look at the bright side of things. Not in evidence were those dark-circled eyes early morning in the office or those time-worn excuses. No grandparents would suddenly fall sick or neighbours die suddenly. No mysterious viruses would hit mercilessly to keep the young executives home mesmerically glued to TV sets.

Yes, sometimes even matches that don't concern us keep us enthralled. But where were the photo finishes that the media wordsmiths like to call cliff hangers? Or even those contests where the result hangs in the balance till very late in the game? No, sadly there were few upsets after the two neighbours had been cruelly called back to the pavilion.

To digress, what went wrong with India and Pakistan? Both fell to minnows; so what if one minnow was more deadly than the other? In India there appears to be national catastrophe where everyone appears to have got involved — ministers, journalists, former stars, self-appointed pundits on TV channels and in newspaper editorials. All other news sounds quite trivial now.

The Indian challenge failed to materialize largely because of the disparate nature of the campaign. The Indian stars, apparently weighed down by astronomical contracts, endorsements, celebrity appearances and the rest, seemed to carry the double pressure of a billion supporters of the most passionate kind as well as the heavyweight of the expectations of the big ticket backing.

Also there had been too many controversies preceding the cup. Greg Chappell had appeared to have exceeded his brief by talking out of turn about senior players and the selection process in the days of Sourav Ganguly. Just as peace seeming to be in the offing, came the bombshell about chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar blaming skipper Dravid for the selection of the out of form Virendra Sehwag.

All this did not augur well for peace in the dressing room and now, after the elimination it has been said that there were standoffs between the senior and junior players (so did it appear from some managerial and coach pronouncements).

There were no redeeming features in the Indian campaigns--no close finishes or even hard luck stories. It was a forgettable campaign from start to finish.

And what of Pakistan? It is ironical to reflect on the happening that the champions of '92 and finalists of '99 had been knocked out before the Super Eights and all by a huge tsunami caused by the humble Irish.

But to be candid, the team was neither like the well-knit unit of Melbourne nor even close to the England campaigners of ‘99.

However you might like to phrase it, the bowling without Shoaib and Asif was pretty pedestrian. And Kaneria was not going to be either a Saqlain or an Abdul Qadir. So much more pressure on the leading batters. Inzi is a loveable and dedicated cricketer but not to mince words, not an inspirational captain. And neither he could produce miracles every time, or combine with Yousuf to keep pulling the chestnuts out of the fire.

So even without the horror stories of the unhappy dressing room, whether you believe it or not, it was a pretty tough call all the way.

But then, the other gallant challenge from the sub-continent materialized and although it failed in the last lap, the tempo of an Asian team in most finals was once more maintained. And they had a number of heroes who fired the imagination.

Malinga was the find of the tournament and along with Murli and Vaas provided the peerless bowling unit. Jayasuriya was always blasting for runs and Jayawardene played a captain's knock to get his team into the finals. Sangakkara by his own standards was not firing on all cylinders but then the teamwork helped.

Their fielding was exemplary and team spirit formidable. And there were some shining stars on the firmament of the Cup. Kevin Pieterson carried an almost single-handed campaign for the hapless Englishmen. Styris and Bond featured for the highly popular Kiwis. And while Kallis and Gibbs had their moments, they were not in evidence when it mattered. Frankly Smith was a disappointment.

And that leads us to the winners. It was a well-oiled and highly motivated machine that won the Caribbean World Cup. The batting Juggernaut of Hayden, Ponting and Gilchrist appeared invincible time and time again. And to think of the old song, "if the right one don't get you, the left one will".

The bowling was brilliantly balanced with the pace of Tait, the wiles of old-timer McGrath and the support bowling of Hogg and Bracken. They did not have the opportunity to miss Brett Lee or Shane Warne.

People say same old faces. But then, you must remember it is a huge act to emulate; a big force to live up to, but at least it is worth trying.