The moment Australia becomes world champion for the sixth time. Photo: ICC/Getty Images
Australia's win in Ahmedabad caps world's best day The cup win is something I remember playing and covering cricket. Beating India in front of more than 100,000 Indian fans on a pitch friendly to the home team is a remarkable sporting achievement, especially after the tournament started with two defeats.
This group of Australian players had the misfortune of following one of the greatest teams in the history of the nineties and noughties. It's hard to always compare yourself to legends of the past. Having won the World Cup in India, the country where it is hardest to do so, they have now achieved something that the greats of the past never achieved. I think some of those names — Warner, Smith, Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood — should now stand alongside Ponting, Waugh, Gilchrist, Warne and McGrath. This is a special team.
It was a very consistent group of Australian players. Seven members of the team won the World Cup in 2015 and 10 of them won the T20 World Cup in 2021. Eight of the XI are part of this year's World Test Championship winning team and have shown they can compete in any conditions. which not all teams can, in India and England this year. They deserve great respect. They are the best cricket team in the world in all formats. Even we English cannot now deny them this mantle. Even morally!
A word from Coach Andrew MacDonald. Often we don't know exactly what each coach does and they keep it to themselves. But he's obviously very good at his job and has a lot to deal with. His partnership with Pat Cummins, who has quickly become an outstanding captain, is excellent. Cummins is calm, precise, a great man who understands cricketers and knows how to manage them. But he has the steel inside him to lead the team.
Tactically, he had a dream ending. By choosing to bowl, then changing bowlers regularly, compressing the field and bowling brilliantly himself. All Australia's bowlers were excellent and bowled brilliantly.
Captain Pat Cummins (left) and centurion Travis Head Photo: Matthew Lewis/Getty Images
Travis Head led the way with a Rohit Sharma catch, a big moment in the game, and then played a superb innings with the bat. To be the best player in the semi-finals and finals of the World Cup is something special. In no time, he became one of the most dangerous hitters in the world, proving that time can improve. I'm not sure what exactly he did, but he is a great example to all cricketers that there is room for improvement. He had potential a few years ago, but he wasn't consistently dangerous. Now his method is a blueprint for sustained aggression and how to dictate terms. I'm guessing he can get a pretty big IPL contract — and he should.
One thing I wish McDonald would do is send all the World Cup players home ahead of the ridiculous T20 series that starts against India on Thursday. They should be allowed to celebrate properly and not play unnecessary games.
I was lucky enough to attend the last four World Championship finals. From a distance it appears to be the largest of the four. It is a monstrous event, partly because of the sheer size of the stadium but also because of the Indian appetite for cricket. In this part of the world the game is getting bigger and bigger.
It's lucky that a country like India is so obsessed with this sport
I had never been on a train or a plane, even in India, where everyone was going to play cricket. It was like flying from Mumbai to Ahmedabad for the final. All anyone in this country wants to talk about is cricket. I have no idea how many people were actually in the stadium during the final, maybe 120 thousand. It felt like half a million.
Indian fans filled the Narendra Modi Stadium full of optimism. Photo: Mani Sharma/AFP 
But fans were ultimately stunned by their team's loss in the final. Photo: Mahesh Kumar A/AP
While we are all in the BCCI — and I stand by my criticism of the on-field antics this week — we have to recognize that what India brings to our game is special. We could only dream of having the entire UK nation obsessed with our game. It could be a goldfish bowl, but it was interesting to see David Beckham come here and what cricket is like in India and the level of attention these players get. Virat has 263 million followers on Instagram, more than three times more than Beckham. This shows how popular cricket is here.
David Beckham appeared at the tournament thanks to his work with UNICEF. Photo: Alex Davidson/ICC
It is played everywhere, in every open space and in every alley. Late at night you come back to the hotel and there's cricket being played in these cages. Everyone, young and old, has an opinion about the game and knows everything about old players like me. They know everything!
This passion for the game has increased greatly since 2011. Thanks to IPL, the game has become bigger. Everyone involved in show business and celebrities have expanded the game's sphere of influence. Lalit Modi may be a divisive figure, but we should probably thank him for the vision he had a few years ago. What he started in the IPL was the impetus for many other things to happen in the game. This created excitement and excitement and brought even more attention to the game. They know how to find those views, especially among young people who want to watch on phones and tablets. Kohli's hundred against South Africa was watched by 53 million people on digital platforms.
Being in the game against India is extraordinary. When India does something well — a wicket, a boundary — the reaction is like winning in the 98th minute in a football cup final. This is how they celebrate every small victory. Warner's wicket early in Australia's innings was as loud as any I remember. When things go wrong, the silence is deafening, but it only adds to the drama. It's one of the other, nothing in between. It was either celebrating success, waving flags and shouting, or complete silence with our heads tucked in.
It was not India's day, but we are very lucky to have a country that is so obsessed with our game. Football is a global sport, so it is a little different from others, but what makes India different from all other competitors is cricket: billions of people are obsessed with our game. It's been great to see it all on display these past few weeks.
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