England have played a brand of one-day cricket well past its sell-by date. This World Cup may have been played in England, but the dusty streets of Lahore and the maidan in Bombay have been the tournament’s spiritual and financial heartland. And when some of that joy is transported to one of cricket’s great grounds, we tell them to sit down and keep quiet. “The World Cup has been a bigger event in India than it has in England,” Rahul Dravid, the tournament’s top scorer commented in a tone of disappointment.Yet there was nothing wrong with the vision for this World Cup nor with the attempts to attract a younger, more vibrant following for the game It might still happen.

English counties are desperately trying to tap into the cricketing talent of the Asian communities, often finding that through no fault of their own their preference is to play in their own teams and in their own leagues.A local Asian college on the outskirts of Nottingham forbids its pupils to play for the local Bridon CC. Nasser Hussain, born in Madras, might be announced as the new England captain this week, but there is still a lot of work to be done before first and second generation Asians discard their allegiance to their homeland and identify with the country of their birth as fiercely as Hussain. Counties like Essex report that while their under-age teams are stocked with talented young Asian cricketers, many of them give priority to educational qualifications and drop out.If there is coercion by an older generation, it is subtly expressed. But no one at Trent Bridge would have blamed the young men draped with Indian flags, shouting slogans they probably did not understand, ears glued to mobile phones, from supporting the team in light blue. Cultural identity is easy when your team is bristling with heroes like Ganguly, Tendulkar and Dravid.India will return home this morning, greeted with predictable condemnation, yet justifiably aggrieved by a format which can promote Zimbabwe, a team of suffocating mediocrity, above them.

From the moment they won the toss and batted on a misty morning at Hove, they have played with a self-confidence and ebullience spoiled only by one loose over against Zimbabwe. For that brief lapse of concentration, they have been heavily punished, and the tournament will be the worse for their exit, on the field and in the stands.Thankfully, most of the demands from the tannoy were wilfully and beautifully ignored. Maybe the antics of the Barmy Army with their relentless chants of “Ingerlund, Ingerlund” are more reflective of a carnival spirit than the drums and whistles of the Indians and Pakistanis. You fear that the sad truth for the future of English cricket is that the announcer spoke for more than a few disgruntled Nottinghamshire CCC members..

IT IS A difficult call to make at such a crucial stage but South Africa just look to have the edge in this tournament. The weight of that statement will be measured today when they play Australia in a match which will decide the semi-final make-up after four long weeks. This is a fitting encounter for such a stage, between two formidable sides who are not only well balanced for the one-day game, and particularly this, its highest kind, but who also have impressively talented individuals who are in form at exactly the right time. Australia should not be discounted because they are blessed with the ability and the will to win but I am tipping South Africa to shade it.
The team coached by Bob Woolmer have done almost everything asked of them, the only blip coming against Zimbawbe when their progress was already assured. They have won the close matches and, as I have mentioned before, they have genuine all-rounders all the way down the order They have beaten Pakistan.