Was 2015 world cup the worst of all world cups?

[Harsh Thakor]

Personally ,I would consider the 2015 edition of the world cup as one of the most one-sided,predictable and uninteresting.True the standard was high but there was hardly the element of unpredictability as in past editions or upsets.It was these very factors that made the one day game or the world cup such a spectacle for sport.This time was very few close finishes or hard fought games.Only 1 of the 7 games from the knockout stage had a tight finish.The rest all petered out into most one -sided contests.I think even the early edition like those of 1975 were more interesting or even 1979. The 4 great games in terms of intensity of finish were the Australia New Zealand game at Hamilton which N.Z.won by 1 wkt.the England-Bangladesh league game which England lost by 11 runs ,the group game between Bangladesh and New Zealand and the South Africa-N.Z.semi-final.Maybe Sri-Lanka-Afghanistan or New Zealand-Scotland were comparable.Amongst the top teams basically we hardly saw epic battles like games between India and South Africa,South Africa-Sri Lanka,Australia -England,West Indies -Pakistan etc.The match that morally won the day for world cup cricket was the Kiwi-Australia encounter where the Kiwis prevailed by 1 wicket in an enthralling finish.Just a whisker below I place the Kiwi-proteas semi-final.Imagine if the final had equalled the intensity of such epic contests.I wish the Kiwi-Aussie game had been the final. I congragulate Australia who peaked in the semi-final and final and on that showing were head and shoulders above any team . They posessed temperament ,mental strength and killer instinct in a different league from any other team. Not playing a single game in Australia acted against the fortunes of New Zealand as the bounce and conditions of pitches in Australia were at variance with those of New Zealand.Man-to man South Africa was still to me the best team.In the end I would place Australai as the giants on top with India,South Africa and New Zealand at level vying for 2nd spot.On paper I consider both South Africa and india marginally better than New Zealand and would have backed them to beat the Kiwis in a final on Australasian soil in close finish.This is because of their familiarity with Australian playing conditions. It was the win of outsiders like India in 1983,Australia in 1987 and Sri Lanka in 1996 or a team coming back from the very last place like Pakistan in 1992 that made the world cup what it is.Imagine both the 1987 semi-finals were upsets in 1987,India won the 1983 cup at odds of 33-1 ,and mid-way in 1992 Pakistan was almost knocked out of the competition.The favourites had lost 4 succesive world cups from 1983-96. .1996 too had some classic games and upsets like the Australia -West Indies semi-final and the South Africa -West Indies quarter final.Later we witnessed the famous South Africa-Aussie tie in 1999 and some other great games in that tournament.Inspite of Australia being unbeaten we had some classic games in 2007 and 2003 like the Sri-Lanka -South Africa encounter in 2007 and the England Australia and England-West Indies and South Africa -West Indies game in 2003 .2011 also had plenty of suspense with India coming out of the ambush to thwart Australia and Pakistan in hard-fought matches.Never forget the India-England tied game in 2011 and England -South Africa match.The last world cup staged in Australia-New Zealand had many more intense finishes and was far more exciting with significantly more suspense till the very end. I really wish we reverted to the super six system as executed in 199 in England.I dislike this present system of straight quarter-finals.It virtually starts the cup at this juncture.Infact I liked the 1992 format when every team played each other.I also feel wickets are prepared too loaded in favour of the batsmen and pitches too standardized.In that light the performance of bowlers like Michel Starc,Trent Boult,Umesh Yadav Wahab Riaz and Muhammad Shami were remarkable.Sangakaara was the biggest run-getter and played outstandingly ad so did Devilliers and Guptill but none could win the cup for their teams.Michel Strac was the deserving man of the tournament who could produce frightening pace and prodiguous bounce like nobody else. Below is my rating of world cups in terms of intensity of competition and excitement in order of merit.Inspite of playing on sub-continent conditions the 1987 edition had upsets in bit these semis ,was won by an outsider and had classic finishes in group games like India-Australia 1sts match,West Indies-Pakistan 1st match New Zealand-Australia 1st match and England-West Indies ist match.1992 saw the it's winners stage a resurgence as never before in a world cup and some classics between England-South Africa,India-Australia etc.1983 almost saw a cricket miracle when India won the final and ah close games like Pak-New Zealand 2 nd game,Eng-New Zealand 2ng game,India-Zimbawe 2nd match and the match where Zimbabwe upset Australia.Both the semi-finals of 1979 were hard -fought while till the finals the 1999 cup was most exciting with the the 2 South Africa -Aussie encounters,South Africa -Pakistan and Australia-Pakistan games all-time classics.The 1975 cup final was the best of them all and the England -Australia semi-final and West Indies-Pakistan league match were classics. 1.1987 2.1992 3.1983 4.1979 5.1999 6.1975 7.2011 8.1996 9.2003 10.2007 11.2015

[MCGGG]

It was pretty crappy, way to long between games IMO, should've had 2 even 3 games every day, but the ICC didn't want to lose any of the television rights money so it was dragged out as much as humanly possible to fill the coffers of the ICC. In future I hope they play 3 games per day to shorten the tourny and make the final a best of 3.

[BeautifulGame]

It was pretty poor but nothing beats the farce that was the 2007 WC

[MCGGG]

It was pretty poor but nothing beats the farce that was the 2007 WC

True, that was amateur hour.

[bulbul]

It was pretty poor but nothing beats the farce that was the 2007 WC

It had a fitting finale as well, which is played in dark...Umpires even asking OZ to bowl few balls even though minimum 20 overs already bowled :cantstop:

[govinda]

not bad