Cricket, lovely cricket?

This is not supposed to be a sports blog, but here comes a second sports-related posting in quick succession, posing the question: has there ever been a more dispiriting sporting event than the World Cup, now mercifully nearing its conclusion in the West Indies?

I don't mean aesthetically dispiriting. There's been plenty to enjoy from a sporting standpoint: the emergence of Bangladesh, the success of Ireland, Malinga's four wickets in four balls (how does he not rabbit-punch the umpire every time he bowls??), Nixon reverse sweeping Murali for six, power hitting by Hayden et al for Australia, and so on.

No, what's bothering me is that the whole bloated spectacle is further evidence of the way that money is destroying the simple enjoyment of sport. There can be no justification for the sheer length of the tournament aside from the desire of the broadcasters to wring the maximum possible return out of their investment. Teams have been idle for days on end, and there was even a provision for "rest days" at one point. For goodness sake! I played more cricket than that when I was second XI wicketkeeper for my school all those years ago!

Then there are the acres of empty seats that we have seen at just about every game. Of course, it hasn't helped that India and Pakistan were knocked out so early, but really, was it necessary to build 20,000 seater stadia in places like Grenada (population 90,000) or Antigua (even smaller)? That's equivalent to putting about 15 MILLION seats in the new Wembley. Some of these islands are never going to see regular international cricket again. What's more, the aggressive pricing of the tickets has meant that far fewer tourists than expected made the trip to the islands (one side-effect: the Barmy Army's travel subsidiary has gone broke). It's a fair bet that the local tourist season will turn out to have been worse than usual, because a lot of non-criket-loving travellers will have opted to stay away.

Even worse, the locals have been shut out. Given that cricket has been losing ground in the West Indies as young athletes are seduced by the big money available in US basketball, this is a huge missed opportunity.

And overshadowing it all, of course, has been the mysterious death of the Pakistan coach, Bob Woolmer, which is likely to be the only thing this event is remembered for in the years to come. The culprits and the motivation may never be known, but is there anyone who thinks that money was not involved in some way?