A Look Back at the 2015 Cricket World Cup!

The dream is over.

After the most magical 6 weeks of cricket - and sport - that this country has ever experienced, the 2015 Cricket World Cup is over. Unfortunately, New Zealand cricket fans didn't get the ending they desired following 6 weeks of the most exhilirating and competitive cricket seen in this country since the days of Richard Hadlee and Martin Crowe.

Nevertheless, Brendon McCullum's and Mike Hesson's class of 2015 will be fondly remembered as one of the best ever sports teams produced in this country, and at the same time, returning cricket to the same levels of respectability that the All Blacks - and even the Kiwis get - after a very fallow decade for the sport in this country.

With autumn well underway in this country, it will be interesting to see if the effects of this World Cup will filter through to grassroots level next summer - participation numbers in cricket have been declining in the last couple of years with other sports like football, basketball, rowing, athletics and rugby snatching future cricketers at school level.

Fortunately, the hangover from this World Cup shouldn't last long with the Indian Premier League due to start in a few weeks featuring several Kiwis and then the Blackcaps touring England in late April until June to wrap off an exhausting season of cricket.

And of course, there's the Aussies albeit without Michael Clarke to look forward to for a round of revenge next summer.

So here's a look back at the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

Team of the Tournament -

(not quite strictly adhering to positions where players excelled in due to the number of changes throughout this tournament in batting order, i.e. Steve Smith moved from 4 to 3, AB de Villiers down the order).

Martin Guptill, New Zealand
Brendon McCullum, New Zealand (captain)
Kumar Sangakarra, Sri Lanka (wk)
Steve Smith, Australia
AB de Villiers, South Africa
Grant Elliott, New Zealand
James Faulkner, Australia
Imran Tahir, South Africa
Tim Southee, New Zealand
Trent Boult, New Zealand
Mitchell Starc, Australia

Bowler of the Tournament - Mitchell Starc, Australia. Trent Boult and Tim Southee had brilliant tournaments but no bowler has ever started so brilliantly in a Final as Mitchell Starc. Moreover, in a tournament where bat generally won over ball, Mitchell Starc broke that convention and was virtually unplayable on his day. There will be more to come with an Ashes tour later in the year where Starc will no doubt play a big role in.

Batsman of the Tournament - Kumar Sangakarra, Sri Lanka. May have missed out to Guptill for highest runs scorer at this tournament but Sangakarra was clearly the batsman of the tournament, breaking the record for most consecutive hundreds at the Cricket World Cup. Clearly Mr Sri Lanka at this tournament and when he went out for not much against South Africa in the quarterfinal, victory was guaranteed for the Proteas.

Game of the Tournament - CWC Semifinal - South Africa v New Zealand, Eden Park, Auckland. Nuff said, watch the highlights. Australia v New Zealand (round robin), Pakistan v South Africa, Afghanistan v Scotland and England v Bangladesh come pretty close too.

Moment of the Tournament - Grant Elliott's six to send the Blackcaps to the CWC Final. See Game of the Tournament.

Disappointment of the Tournament - England. All teams in this World Cup inc. Afghanistan had at least one star player who could make a difference. England had absolutely no one and seem to be 10 years behind the rest of the game. For a country considered one of the 3 power brokers of the game - and given seeding 2 years ago for this tournament - this was an absolutely shambolic tournament that just about avoided ignominy at the death against Afghanistan.

Surprise of the Tournament - Bangladesh. They started slowly but the Bengal Tigers got better and revealed some stars of the game in Mahmudullah and Rubel Hossain in their last pool games against England and New Zealand. Hopefully this will finally catapult Bangladesh into a respectable test cricket nation.

Thoughts for the Future?
Stick to 12 teams and retain the current qualifying tournament but have games every 3-4 days to reduce the length of the tournament. The break that the Blackcaps had at times was just ridiculous and I'm sure they wouldn't mind playing 3 games within 7 days during this World Cup. How about a 3rd/4th place game for revenue purposes?