Fifty over Cricket is here to stay

The very criticism of ODIs now is that they are predictable, patterned and thus dull. For many reasons this has happened, chief and simplest among them too many matches and the sick pitches in most of the subcontinent. But this tournament has tried its honest best to subvert that predictability. At the very highest level, the argument is redundant of course, for Australia won it and they still win everything; four of the last five global 50-over tournaments in fact. But six results out of 15 went against the grain of common expectation; there was England's unexpected run to the semis and New Zealand's own mauled run to the final; if there was only one really close finish, there was at least some valour in West Indies' games against Pakistan and Australia. Whoever has played better on the day has won, but it has not been as easy as before to place the identity.

The reasons are easy to see. The format of the tournament, as everyone has agreed, is just right. There was always something at stake in every game, from beginning to end. There has been no irrelevance. One loss for any side made every subsequent match almost a must-win, yet mathematics were such that on their last group days, India and Sri Lanka could both have gone through with just one win: always tight, always open. Restricting the whole affair to just two venues was also smart, cutting out the boredom of travelling back and forth, practicing and playing in between and making the whole feel tighter, more coherent.

And for once, one-day cricket has been played on surfaces with a little itch in them, to ensure that batsmen - increasingly the military dictators of ODI cricket - have not been able to entirely rule over the land of cricket. The pitches at Centurion and Wanderers have varied drastically and occasionally they have been unplayable: Ponting called one surface at the Wanderers dangerous and not fit for cricket, but even that, for the viewer if not participant, held some fun.

This was also the first ICC event since the introduction of the batting Powerplay and at least in the debate it has created on what conditions enable its best use, there has been keen interest. Teams have mostly sparred with the innovation, nothing too radical in using it after 40 overs generally: 16 of 27 Powerplays before the final came after 40 overs which doesn't say much unless we look at the context each time it was used. But we know that some teams, like Pakistan, struggled to use it best, while others, like Australia and New Zealand, mostly got it right. It is a useful, worthy innovation because it adds to the unknown for both captains.

The Champions Trophy, on balance, has shown that it has a future, as does the format itself. It has reminded us that ODIs, essentially, can still be a format in which many things pleasing and surprising may happen. If that was the yardstick before the tournament, then it has been a success. But it is one thing laying out a path for the future. It is entirely another to get on it.