Ben on...statistics say "World Cup crap"

Throughout the Cup, we've been bombarded with articles about the disastrous organisation of this World Cup. The failures of the World Cup included small crowds, lack of atmosphere, too many restrictions on attendees (I particularly liked the fact that attendees were specifically permitted to take water into the grounds, but couldn't take in glass bottles, plastic bottles or tins, presumably having to carry the water in their cupped hands), too many minnows, too many minnows qualifying for the Super 8, its interminable length... Sometimes it seemed like the ICC had intended for it to be a disaster.

All of this might have been forgivable if the cricket had been good. But of course, the cricket stank on the whole. And the statistics prove it. Even accounting for the minnows, a good 2/3 of the matches were one-sided, with victory margins of greater than 50 runs or of more than 5 wickets with 5 overs to spare. Worse than any previous World Cup. And worse also than the prevailing trend for the 2000s of about 50% of games being no-contests.