CRICKET/World Cup Final: Richard Gillis wants seven weeks of carnival cricket to finish on a high as the all-conquering Aussies face Sri Lanka in today's final in Barbados
For the sake of the game, this tournament needs to end well. After seven weeks (seven weeks!), the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup has given us many things, good and bad. Now it must leave us with one truly great cricket match. The cricket world deserves it, demands it even.
It must be a final that celebrates everything that is great about the game. Committed, purposeful cricket played by talented and clever players confidently showcasing their extravagant gifts. It must be a thriller, a pulse-quickening denouement between well-matched teams in front of a sell-out crowd on a perfect Barbadian summer's day.
Pubs and bars must overspill with excited punters drunk from the exhilaration of it all, rubbing their necks after hours spent staring at the big screen in the corner of the bar. Anything less is not good enough.
Given the number of games played so far (50) only five could be described as having a close finish. Ireland were in two of them: the tie against Zimbabwe and the nerve tingler against Pakistan, as were the finalists Sri Lanka: against England and South Africa.
There have been great individual and team performances certainly: Matthew Hayden's run of scoring; Herschelle Gibbs's six sixes in an over against Netherlands; Lalith Malinga's four wickets in four balls to scare South Africa; Ireland's shocking, brilliant defeat of Pakistan; Bangladesh's dismantling of India and South Africa.
But there have also been too many grinding and debilitating lows: the shocking, tragic and sordid death of Bob Woolmer; the subsequent match-fixing slurs that won't go away; the painful failure of the listless West Indies team in front of a heartbroken home support; the administrative strictures that extracted so much of the colour of Caribbean cricket; the scandal of ticket prices and empty seats; the exclusion of the local people from an event they have looked forward to for so long and in which they had invested so much, both financially and emotionally.
After all that, a great tussle is necessary.
The omens are not good. Of the eight finals so far, only the first, between Australia and West Indies in 1975, can lay claim to being a great match. Even this week's semis, which promised so much, were a let-down. From day one, Australia have looked a mile ahead of any challengers. In desperate bids to inject bite into the event, false idols have been erected, only to crumble under pressure.
New Zealand, South Africa and even West Indies have been championed at one time or another over the past two months. It is left to Sri Lanka to stare Ricky Ponting's men in the eye and not blink.
Australia are a very good side and have confounded any notion that they are in transition: They have reached the final without recourse to the higher gears.
How good they are is difficult to gauge because of the poverty of the opposition. Like the All Blacks, Tiger Woods and Roger Federer, they are failed by the lack of close competition.
Their batting has been dominated by Matthew Hayden, who is a combination of Aussie mental strength and impregnable self-confidence made flesh.
But what has been most impressive is the way the bowlers have risen to the occasion. Australia travelled to the Caribbean with no Shane Warne, no Brett Lee and a supposedly fading Glenn McGrath.
In came Shaun Tait, a previously unguided missile, who has taken 23 wickets in 10 games (compared to Lee's 22 in the 2003 tournament). Brad Hogg, a 35-year-old left-arm leg spinner has been a revelation in the Warne role.
Hogg's 20 wickets have been taken at an economy rate of less than four an over, a feat matched only by Muralitharan (23 wickets so far), the little genius he faces today.
Glenn McGrath has recently endured the indignity of being targeted, charged even, by Kevin Pietersen (who got a broken rib for his impudence) and several other of the game's young tyros. His response has been to take more wickets at a World Cup, 25, than anyone before.
"I've probably bowled a little differently this tournament," he said this week after humbling South Africa with 3 for 14. "I've probably bowled a little more aggressively than I have done in the past. That's the reason I've got a few more wickets, I've probably gone for a few more runs than I normally do."
Against this sort of artillery, Sri Lanka must come out fighting; this is no time for self-doubt. They must be the Sri Lanka that demolished the West Indies in Guyana, when they fielded brilliantly and Sanath Jayasuriya rolled back the years with a brutal century and the freakish bowling combination of Malinga and Murali had far too much for Lara and the rest of his top order.
They look well balanced with both bat and ball. Their best players are in form; Mahela Jayawardene's hundred in the semi-final was well timed in every sense.
Their Australian coach, Tom Moody, has them playing with what his compatriots call "a bit of mongrel" (wicketkeeper Sangakarra is a purveyor of sledging from the top end of the market) and fielding coach Trevor Penney has had a tangible effect.
Today's game marks the end of the road for the two coaches, Moody and John Buchanan both leave their posts when the day is done. This has been a turbulent tournament for the men in tracksuits.
Bob Woolmer's death notwithstanding (although he too was due to retire at the end of the tournament), the coaches of England, West Indies and India, in addition to Sri Lanka and Australia, have all resigned their positions with varying degrees of insistence from their boards.
Very few of those will receive the thunderous farewell afforded Ireland's Adrian Birrell, who made an emotional speech at his last official engagement, at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin on Wednesday.
Birrell generously invited his successor, Phil Simmons, on the stage with him, a gesture typical of the modest and thoughtful South African, who has transformed the performances of the Ireland team.
Owing in large part to Birrell's hard work, the World Cup has been a fantastic ride for the growing fraternity of Ireland's new fans.
The tournament having captured their interest, a great final tomorrow would serve as the perfect appetiser of what's to come.
World Cup Final
Australia v Sri Lanka
Today, 2pm, Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados
Live on Sky Sports 2
Ireland will be missing batsman Eoin Morgan for tomorrow's Friends Provident Trophy match against Kent because he is required by Middlesex. Opening bowler Boyd Rankin will also miss the match at Stormont as he is on duty with Derbyshire.
It will be Ireland's first match under new coach Phil Simmons. The only other member of the World Cup party not included is Paul Mooney, who has retired from international cricket.
IRELAND SQUAD: T Johnston, A Botha, J Bray, K Carroll, P Gillespie, D Langford- Smith, J Mooney, K McCallan, K O'Brien, N O'Brien, W Porterfield, A White.
Australia
Captain - Ricky Ponting.
Coach - John Buchanan.
Squad - Ricky Ponting, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Michael Clarke, Adam Gilchrist, Brad Haddin, Matthew Hayden, Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg, Mike Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Glenn McGrath, Andrew Symonds, Shaun Tait, Shane Watson.
World Cup record - 1975: Runners-up; 1979: First round; 1983: First round; 1987: Champions; 1992: First round; 1996: Runners-up; 1999: Champions; 2003: Champions.
Overall playing record - Played: 658, Won: 405, Lost: 227, Tied: 8, No result: 18.
Highest innings total - 434-4 v South Africa, Johannesburg, 2006.
Lowest innings total - 70 v New Zealand, Adelaide, 1986; 70 v England, Edgbaston, 1977.
Path to Final
Group Stage
Defeated Scotland by 203 runs. Defeated Netherlands by 229 runs. Defeated South Africa by 83 runs.
Super Eights
Defeated West Indies by 103 runs. Defeated Bangladesh by 10 wickets. Defeated England by seven wickets. Defeated Ireland by nine wickets. Defeated Sri Lanka by seven wickets. Defeated New Zealand by 215 runs.
Semi-final
Defeated South Africa by seven wickets.
Sri Lanka
Captain - Mahela Jayawardene.
Coach - Tom Moody.
Squad - Mahela Jayawardene, Russel Arnold, Marvan Atapattu, Malinga Bandara, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dilhara Fernando, Sanath Jayasuriya, Nuwan Kulasekara, Farveez Maharoof, Lasith Malinga, Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Sangakkara, Chamara Silva, Upul Tharanga, Chaminda Vaas.
World Cup record - 1975: First round; 1979: First round; 1983: First round; 1987: First round; 1992: First round; 1996: Champions; 1999: First round; 2003: Semi-finalists.
Overall playing record - Played: 527, Won: 241, Lost: 263, Tied: 3, No result: 20.
Highest innings total - 443-9 v Netherlands, Amstelveen, 2006.
Lowest innings total: 55 v West Indies, Sharjah, 1986.
Path to Final
Group Stage
Defeated Bermuda by 243 runs. Defeated Bangladesh by 198 runs (D/L method). Defeated India by 69 runs.
Super Eights
Lost to South Africa by one wicket. Defeated West Indies by 113 runs. Defeated England by two runs. Defeated New Zealand by six wickets. Lost to Australia by seven wickets. Defeated Ireland by eight wickets.
Semi-final
Defeated New Zealand by 81 runs.
