As It was in the beginning, so it shall be in the end....

There was a wonderful sense of irony at the end of the 2007 Cricket World Cup, the competition that so many had been denied the opportunity to see because of the organisers greed ended with a full house being denied the right to see because of the dark. Overpriced tickets, half empty stadia, the murder of one of the coaches, the domination by one team from start to finish - the 2007 Competition will be remembered for many things.

My abiding memory will be of the best cricketing side of the last ten years absolutely dominating every side they played. There was a question posed and posted on the 5Live board last Autumn - What would you rather win, the Ashes of the World Cup? Has there ever been a question posed to an English public that had such a hollow, meaningless ring to it? Well yes, would you rather have Gordon Brown or Tony Blair as P.M but you know what I mean.

England's demise and Australian's supremacy over the winter should finally prove to those sad delusional people who packed the streets of London in September 2005 that actually that was the high point of England's current generations efforts and merely an aberration for Australia. Class as they say is permanent, the form of Flintoff and co. all too fleetingly temporary. Australia have taken one day cricket to a new level, with Sri Lanka not to far behind, it's not a coincidence that Sri Lanka's improvement has been since Tom Moody got hold of a talented but ill disciplined group of players and turned them into, almost world beaters.

Once in a while a team come along who dominate a sport: Liverpool (1977-1989), A.C Milan (1990-1998), Ferrari (1999-2006), West Indies (1975-1984) and the current Australian side. Their detractors can point to other sides injuries but Australia are a side that is constantly learning, evolving, 'raising the bar'. Three of this winning side won the 1999 World Cup and it's possible that with the exception of McGrath, Hayden and Gilchrist the bulk of this side will be in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh in 2010.

The competition ran for too long, was not accessible to most of the population where it was held and the organisation at the games heavy handed to the point of asking (or rather telling) spectators that they wouldn't be admitted to the ground if they were found to be carrying products or company's not on the official sponsors lists. Beyond that was the still unsolved murder of Bob Woolmer for reasons we may never know, but in the end the competition was won for the third successive side by a country that continues to strive for the best they can be. England, Pakistan, India, Ireland, Holland, West Indies and Sri Lanka all finished the tournament without the coach they began with, as did Australia although you feel with the latter their progress will be through evolution rather than revolution.