Australia are deserved champions – Sir Vivian Richards

Also, Michael Clarke was one of the better captains of this tournament for me, if not the best. His participation was under some cloud, and there were questions about whether he should be considered for the Australian squad or not. But the way he has led in this World Cup was simply marvellous.

From a team point of view, South Africa’s performance in their semi-final against New Zealand was wonderful. They gave it everything they had. I felt sorry for AB de Villiers. He is a magnificent cricketer. There were tears shed by Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn as well, and it just goes to show how passionate they are about playing for their country, and trying to win the ICC Cricket World Cup. Nobody should see them as a soft target.

In the end, I would like to re-iterate that it was a great tournament, wherein the two best teams played the final, and the best team won eventually. If there is a negative, maybe it was about the length of the tournament. People who love the game, as per my observation, do not understand why an ODI World Cup has to be so long. The scheduling was not correct either. Some teams got too much of a gap between matches and others did not. It doesn’t help with momentum in a tournament like this, which is very important from a performance point of view. Maybe this is something for the organizers to ponder over, going ahead.

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