KEY POINTS:
A report filed by former New Zealand Cricket chief executive Martin Snedden will rate the World Cup as "average to poor". The report will be used as a 'what not to do' in his new role as head of Rugby New Zealand 2011 Ltd and he will also be tabling it with the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Snedden said the key points were:
* The tournament was too long.
* The poor performance of five of the major teams detracted from the value of the tournament.
* The death of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer cast a pall and was ineffectively handled by Jamaican police.
* The West Indian travel and hotel industry's prices were exorbitant.
From a spectacle point of view, the most disappointing aspect, according to Snedden, was the quality of the cricket, a fact that could only partially be blamed on slow pitches.
"India, Pakistan, England, the West Indies and South Africa were so poor that out of 52 games, you had very few close finishes and very little good quality games," Snedden said.
"Australia played well, Sri Lanka played well, New Zealand played well until the end and I suppose you can say Bangladesh played well. But really five teams playing as they did was detrimental to the tournament and it's something out of the control of the tournament organiser.
"For a tournament to be successful, you need the host nation to be competitive and playing well for most of the tournament. The West Indies effectively collapsed and were hopeless."
Snedden said most people did not recognise just how difficult a region the Caribbean was to host a major tournament, particularly when the poor performance of the locals turned some of those less enamoured with cricket off the tournament completely.
Snedden's findings to a certain extent mirror those found in a Federation of International Cricketers' Associations (FICA) survey.
The survey found just 11 per cent of players rated the World Cup good or excellent, while 46 per cent said it was poor or below average.
Another key finding of the FICA survey was that players said the tournament was between 10 and 14 days too long.
