So the English closed out the T20 World Cup final nicely on the weekend. It was almost a perfect performance in the final of a tournament: early wickets, great fielding, tight bowling, and a long batting line up that got there despite a late wobble. Full credit to the Brits; they were definitely the most consistent and professional team in the Caribbean, and they would have been keen to make amends for their last tournament here which ended pretty embarrassingly. It also broke their tournament duck, after losing 3 proper World Cup Finals and an ICC Knockout Final (at home, ouch).

However as far as World Cups go, the 2010 T20 version will perhaps be remembered as the least impressive ever. Ok, maybe I’m stretching that out a bit. Nevertheless, here is a list of things worth drawing some attention to:

• Sporting fixtures in the West Indies should be held once a decade, maximum, to retain their mythical status;
• There was a T20 World Cup last year;
• And another 2 (ODI and T20) in 2007 (if you’re counting at home that’s 4 in 4 years);
• Slow pitches meant the tournament was heavily weighted in favour of spinners;
• Only 3 teams turned up to play: Pakistan, Australia and England;
• India are clearly burnt out;
• NZ were fully fit, so didn’t have to scrap as hard as normal, thus rendering themselves ineffective;
• Shahid Afridi had clearly spent too much time on his new blonde tips and not enough time in the nets;
• The South Africans were all playing for England;
• Players weren’t getting paid to light it up like the IPL;
• The best batsmen weren’t there (think Tendulkar, Sehwag, Ponting, Elliott).

Are there any Africans left in Africa?

Et cetera, et cetera. That may or may not have made much sense, but to underline the point, it seemed as though most of the teams just weren’t into it. To be fair, before the tournament, if you’d picked four semi-finalists you probably wouldn’t have had either England or Australia. Credit to them for making it through, but it was somewhat reminiscent of the 2002 football World Cup, where big guns dropped like flies and diminished the value of the tournament. Sure there was a deserving winner at the end, but it wasn’t pretty.

Perhaps it’s the nature of 20/20 as a sport, whereby the margins are so small and the game can change so quickly that no teams can be considered a favourite. Or maybe we’re seeing the rise of this English squad, with their first limited overs tournament win, as well as the Ashes safely back in London. Or maybe the players enjoyed their surroundings a bit much.

Whatever. At least we don’t have to wait long until the next one.