KEY POINTS:
In case you need reminding, this has been a flawed tournament.
Some can be blamed on the organisers, most notably the lack of crowds through high ticket prices, substandard facilities and the length of the tournament.
What World Cup 2007 managing director Chris Dehring and his staff can't be blamed for, however, are the two most glaring faults: the painfully slow death of the Super Eights, and no bright, young stars.
For the former you can blame India and Pakistan, whose shock first-round exits might have been good craic for the Irish and created a buzz in Bangladesh, but sucked most of the suspense out of the Super Eights. It became, in effect, the Super Sixes and when it was discovered the only thing 'Super' about England and the West Indies was the petrol in their team minivans, picking the finalists was as predictable as a 12th Man CD.
As for the young talent, it has to be said that there has been no evidence there are any young players out there worthy of shining the shoes of the current greats.
This World Cup has failed to unearth a new talent in the way 1975 gave us Javed Miandad and Imran Khan. The second World Cup, also in England, showcased for the first time Allan Border, Desmond Haynes, Joel Garner, Graham Gooch and Kapil Dev.
Martin Crowe hit 97 as a 20-year-old in his first World Cup in England against England in 1983, while Abdul Qadir became the prototype for attacking legspin bowling that was later perfected by Shane Warne.
The first World Cup in the subcontinent, in 1987, was a drab affair and failed to unearth a world beater, though Navjot Sidhu would gain a reputation as one of the most savage six-hitters the game has ever seen.
Meanwhile, 1992 gave us Inzamam-ul-Haq, unfortunately, Sachin Tendulkar, and Brian Lara.
Back in the subcontinent in 1996 and Ricky Ponting made his World Cup debut, though his reputation preceded him. Likewise Lance Klusener and Rahul Dravid in 1999.
This dissolving of the World Cup as a forum for exciting young talent continued in 2003, with only Andrew Symonds sticking his hand up. If anything this year is worse.
Let's look at the batting.
Of the top 10 run-scorers, just four are under 30. Of those, only AB de Villiers, 23, and Kevin Pietersen, 26, are playing in their first World Cups. Mahela Jayawardene, 29, and Graeme Smith, 26, are veterans and captains of their respective sides.
The rest - Jacques Kallis, 31, Matthew Hayden, 35, Scott Styris, 31, Ponting, 32, Sanath Jayasuriya, 37, and Stephen Fleming, 34 - have been around as long as the King James Bible.
The average age of the top 10 wicket takers surpasses that of the batsmen. Again only four are under 30 and Daniel Vettori, 28, has 11 years' international cricket while Nathan Bracken, 29, made his ODI debut six years ago. It is the first World Cup for Shaun Tait, 24, and Lasith Malinga, 23.
Glenn McGrath, 37, Brad Hogg, 36, Muttiah Muralitharan, 35, Charl Langeveldt, 32, Andrew Hall, 31, and Shane Bond, 31, all have fewer years left in the game than they've enjoyed so far.
These statistics suggest world cricket is lacking a youth policy.
If you looked before the tournament at the starlets you would have expected to make an impact, most have at best disappointed, and at worst flopped.
Take the two Taylors, Ross and Jerome.
For reasons not entirely of their own making, they barely made a dent in this tournament.
Taylor, Ross, managed a pleasant 85 against Kenya supplemented by ducks against England and Sri Lanka, a pulled hamstring and 10 against South Africa. Hardly what New Zealand wanted from the player Ian Chappell described as the find of the year.
Jerome has had an even worse go of it. The exciting young paceman who was supposed to be representative of a new generation of Caribbean quicks, took just four wickets and found himself left out of the 11 for some crucial matches.
To find a genuine young star who has emerged from this World Cup you would probably have to look at Bangladesh.
In 20-year-old Saqibul Hasan they have an all-rounder who has the potential to leave an indelible mark on the game. He scored an inglorious blob in his final hit-out against the West Indies, but still topped 200 runs for the tournament in an awkward middle-order spot, and was an effective orthodox left-arm spinner.
But whether his name one day resonates with the same power as Inza-mam or Kapil, or Martin Crowe, well that remains to be seen.
