Guardian writers pick over 43 days of black armbands, brave and beautiful batting and explosive bowling
Paul Kelso
Player of the tournament: Impossible to separate the contrasting talents of Andy Bichel and the glorious Sachin Tendulkar. Bichel, the water-carrier of the Australian squad, rescued them on the only two occasions it was necessary.
Biggest disappointment: The shambles over England’s decision not to travel to Zimbabwe debased the tournament and English cricket.
Favourite game: South Africa v New Zealand. The silence that enveloped a usually raucous Wanderers ground as storm clouds gathered and Stephen Fleming moved to a match-winning century was the sound of a nation’s inflated self-belief draining away.
Best performance: Tendulkar’s dismantling of the Pakistani attack was as good as it is possible to bat. Also, Pepsi, LG and the other sponsors whose logos were never out of shot.
Memorable moment: Henry Olonga’s and Andy Flower’s black-armband protest against the Mugabe regime was sport’s most eloquent political statement since the Black Power salutes at the 1968 Olympics and the only dignified moment of a squalid affair.
Quote of the tournament: ”We reserve our position on the statement that the match was cancelled. The agreement . . . was that we agreed the match would not take place on the scheduled date. There is a difference.” Mark Roper-Drimie, ECB director of legal affairs, justifies his salary.
Mike Selvey
Player of the tournament: Tendulkar. Failed in the final and filled his boots against some easy opposition. But he played some remarkable innings to show he is the supreme batsman of the day.
Biggest disappointment: England players failing to take a moral stance on Zimbabwe, waiting instead for their employers to decide for them.
Favourite game: South Africa v West Indies. The first match proved one of the best, West Indies winning by three runs, Brian Lara scoring a century and the South African bubble of expectation being pricked.
Best performance: Bichel, seven for 20 and 34 not out v England. His bowling destroyed the batting; his lower-order batting, along with that of Michael Bevan, saw Australia home at a time when they were well beaten.
Memorable moment: The protest of Flower and Olonga. A remarkable gesture of genuine bravery.
Quote of the tournament: ”Come to Zimbabwe and you will return home to Britain in wooden coffins” – the Sons and Daughters of Zimbabwe.
Tanya Aldred
Player of the tournament: Olonga and Flower for their protest against Mugabe which jeopardised their careers and possibly their lives.
Biggest disappointment: The final. Sourav Ganguly tossed the coin and India’s chances out of the window.
Favourite game: South Africa v West Indies: the mountain, the floodlights, the excitement, Lara’s innings, Lance Klusener’s hitting and a last-over finish made for a perfect opener. After that it was downhill all the way.
Best innings: Ramnaresh Sarwan against Sri Lanka. Two hours after being knocked out and carted to hospital he only just failed to carry West Indies to improbable victory.
Best performance: Kenya. Their cricket was joyful and their celebrations belonged to the elite of the Premiership.
Memorable moment: The roar from 20 000 Indian throats as Tendulkar cut Shoaib Akhtar’s fourth ball for six at Centurion. It was the shot that sealed Pakistan’s fate.
Quote of the tournament: ”We knew it [229] was for the tie; I had the sheet in my hand when it started to rain.” Sanath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka’s captain, points out to Shaun Pollock the benefits of elementary arithmetic after the game that knocked South Africa out.
Dave Podmore
Player of the tournament: Mahela Jayawardene — 21 runs from seven knocks, in return for which he trousered six weeks’ sponsorship money from Dilmah Tea. No wonder his middle name is ”award”.
Biggest disappointment: Having to be at the World Cup when I could have been protecting Nicholas van Hoogstraten’s land from ramblers. Hoogy and Pod go back a long way; I helped organise the first of his annual Landowners v Unwashed Scum charity matches.
Favourite game: Golf, by a country mile. Especially last week’s four-ball with Blowers, a crate of Boschendal Shiraz and a couple of the guys from Kroll Security — I never realised you could have that much fun with a cattle prod. Cricketwise, nothing springs to mind.
Best performance: Everyone heaped praise on the groundsman for using a hair-dryer to get the wicket ready for the final. For me it was the selfless action of Barry Richards who lent his Braun at grave risk to his own hairstyle.
Memorable moment: The sponsorship guards at Port Elizabeth who wouldn’t take no for an answer after challenging an elderly punter they suspected of smuggling a drink that wasn’t Pepsi. One body search later and bingo: a can of Lilt stuffed up the guy’s arse.
Quote of the tournament: Robert Croft on Sky: ”It’s always the same problem with Pakistan: too many chiefs and not enough Indians.”
David Hopps
Player of the tournament: Brett Lee, whose explosive bowling, at speeds in excess of 95mph, stirred the soul.
Biggest disappointment: The Super Six. They were misconceived from the outset; the tournament was unwieldy and the points system flawed.
Favourite game: South Africa’s exit at the group stage when they misread the Duckworth-Lewis rain chart and failed to get the single they needed to beat Sri Lanka. A wonderful game with a cruel twist.
Best performance: Sarwan’s return from hospital to resume his innings, against doctors’ advice. His heroic failure was magnificent theatre.
Memorable moment: This World Cup was an organisational triumph which far exceeded the pathetically unambitious effort in England in 1999.
Quote of the tournament: ”It’s no problem. We always fight when we play football” – Pakistan’s captain Waqar Younis playing down Inzamam-ul-Haq’s pushing and shoving during a football kick-around in Bulawayo.
Shoaib Akhtar
Player of the tournament: Tendulkar. He took 18 off my first over, so who else could I say?
Biggest disappointment: The whole thing. It’s been a bad month for Pakistani cricket. It’s not about individuals doing badly, it’s about all of us as a team not coming up with the goods.
Favourite game: England v Australia.
Best performance: The Australians obviously and Ricky Ponting’s innings in the final. It was a great decision to let in Kenya and Canada and both proved themselves worthy.
Memorable moment: My 100mph ball? No, let’s say my 43 off 16 balls against England, the highest score by a No11 in a one-day international.
Quote of the tournament: When we were playing Australia someone shouted ”Chucker” at me. I told him he didn’t know what he was talking about.
Rob Steen
Player of the tournament: Flower, Nasser Hussain and Olonga. Together they reasserted that real sportspeople need not be moral exclusion zones.
Biggest disappointment: Pakistan. Inzamam’s diet was as self-defeating as Samson’s visit to the barber.
Favourite game: South Africa v West Indies. Magic from Lara and those who may revive Caribbean cricket (Ricardo Powell and Sarwan), a riveting finish and a sock in the eye for the self-deluding hosts.
Best performance: Collins Obuya’s exuberant tormenting of Sri Lanka — an exemplary demonstration of cricket’s most elusive skill, leg-spin.
Memorable moment: Adam Gilchrist’s unprompted walk in the semi-final v Sri Lanka. Honesty lives.
Quote of the tournament: ”Their willies are too small to fit into South African condoms” – Daryl Illbury, radio breakfast-show host, plays the good loser after the fatal tie v Sri Lanka. – Guardian Unlimited