Talk about just deserts. A double washout of the finals gave the Champions Trophy just the end it deserved. If ICC had established a Torture Committee to draw up a fortnight of prolonged boredom for fans, it could not have done better. Empty grounds, mismatches, technology debates and match-fixing ghosts filled a tournament much in need of a make over. Twelve of the sixteen games were one-sided. But then, close finishes had a closer look from Paul Condon, ICC match-fixing fighter. Cricket's credibility, it seems, can't bear radical twists anymore.

Condon's security cordon and the ridiculously loose schedule ensured that under-employed players were left brooding like bored birds in five-star cages. Or sneak in women to their rooms, as the West Indians allegedly did. When a title contender takes off to a holiday island midway through the tournament, as Australia did to the Maldives, ICC must know its mini-World Cup format needs new clothes.

Start dressing the minnows. Holland, Kenya and Bangladesh are not in same league. Put them in another plate division, where the winner emerges to play the bigger teams. At the least, Kenya v Bangladesh will be more watchable than the silly massacres that were Bangladesh's matches against Australia and New Zealand. International cricket development, the aim of this tournament, appears stuttering in reverse gear with the gap between the best and the worst ODI teams yawning wider.

For all the hype and contracts controversy, the tournament suffered a poverty of memorable performances. Virender Sehwag's murderous form or India's remarkable comeback against South Africa were too few thrills in too many days. Those glorious tropical sunsets were the saving grace that television cameras captured.

Even the brave attempts like the new technology rule - field umpires being allowed more referrals to the third umpire - floundered in confusion. Added to the dizzying variables in deciding an lbw was another: to ask or not to ask. Bowlers suffered, watching shouts for plumb decisions dissolved, with the umpire often wearing that rabbit-trapped-in-front-of-headlights look, unsure which way to go.

ICC must push their new technology measure to the logical end. Let the techno whizzes work out a hand-held monitor that will give the field umpire access to what viewers see. The third umpire needs to get out of cricket, not technology. Cricket, now largely a TV game, cannot afford to leave the field umpire feeling like the only idiot in the park, when the big screen flashes his bloopers. Maybe we will see that in the next edition of the mini-World Cup, which hopefully will last only a week.

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