Of the four World T20s held across four continents, the third edition in the West Indies has to be the least successful meet for various reasons.
There was a distinct lack of response from the local population and rows of empty seats in the stadia even during matches involving the home team wasn’t an ideal advertisement for the tournament. The newest of the ICC events that had begun on a robust note appeared to be losing its steam only in its third instalment.
The short one-year gap between the second (held in England in 2009) and third tournaments betrayed signs of an overkill while early starts for matches, as early as 9.30 am, to suit the timings of the large and lucrative TV audiences in the sub-continent proved a dampner.
That India made another early exit didn’t help neither the organisers’ cause nor the broadcasters’. West Indies too couldn’t progress beyond the Super Eight stage. Like in England, the short ball once again came to haunt the Indian batsmen as they failed to win a single match in the Super Eight, crashing out amid a plethora of controversies.
The fitness, rather the lack of it, of some of the senior players came into sharp focus while a pub-brawl involving a few Indian players and some inebriated expat fans put them in a spot.The tournament also saw the end of Asian hegemony as the final featured none of the sub-continental teams with Pakistan and Sri Lanka bowing out in the semifinals.
Riding on Kevin Pietersen’s dominant display that saw him aggregate 248 runs -- the second highest in the tournament -- England overcame their Ashes rivals in the final for their only major ICC title yet while Australia were left to rue another missed opportunity.
Brief scores (final): Australia: 147/6 in 20 overs (David Hussey 59; Ryan Sidebottom 2-26) lt to England: 148/3 in 17 overs (Kieswetter 63, Kevin Pietersen 47).
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