Australia's win in the World Cup final, though unsurprising, served to underline their status as the best side in the world and to accentuate the gulf that they have opened between them and the rest.

The two best teams of the tournament were rightly contesting the showpiece, but whereas the Indians appeared nervous and a little overawed, the Australians rose to the occasion and produced another scintillating display.

When Darren Lehmann, Andrew Symonds and Michael Bevan are not required, you know some extraordinary batting has been taking place.

From the start, Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist had the previously impressive Indian seamers on the ropes and laid the perfect foundations for an outstanding innings from Ricky Ponting.

The Australian captain's timing, placement, power and array of shots were sensational and carried the game rapidly away from the Indians' grasp.

Their only real hope of chasing such a formidable target was for Tendulkar to repeat Ponting's feat, of which he would of course be more than capable, but that prospect was dashed in the first over when he skied a return catch to Glenn McGrath. The rest of the game became a formality.

Ganguly, who previously in the tournament had heroically led his troops from the front, will come in for some questioning over his decision to field on winning the toss.

The pitch was clearly a belter, though he felt the overnight rain might make batting early on tricky.

It seemed a decision borne from the same thoughts that Nasser Hussain had in opting to field in the first Ashes Test at Brisbane earlier in the winter - essentially a few nerves and doubts tempting the captain to take the defensive option.

Both Hussain and Ganguly were certainly let down by their bowlers, but the only way to beat these Aussies is to take the game to them.

If any side is going to make a captain or team pay for a negative approach, the Australians will.

However, the Australian win must have reassured the World Cup organisers that at least something predictable would happen in their tournament.

The rest of the competition was strewn with difficulties and hurdles. Some like the Zimbabwe issue should have been foreseen, though others like South Africa's early departure and the loss to the tournament of two of its biggest stars, Shane Warne and Jonty Rhodes, were less obvious.

Several commentators have blamed the Super Six formula of the tournament for Zimbabwe and Kenya ending up in the last six, but the only reason that teams qualified as they did was because of the ICC's failure to recognise the dangers of playing in Zimbabwe.

While New Zealand could be accused of being too sensitive in their reasons for withdrawing from a game in Nairobi, expecting teams to play cricket in Zimbabwe was a completely different kettle of fish.

The stand that Henry Olonga and Andy Flower made by wearing black armbands and making a statement mourning the 'death of democracy' was the most striking picture of this World Cup and reiterated to the world the seriousness of the predicament there.

That they both will not return to the country (Olonga fears, with reason, for his life) simply emphasises the point.

Unfortunately, this is the biggest of several clouds that have hung over this World Cup.

Logistically the competition was a great success with flights, hotels, pitches, practice and press facilities being generally excellent.

But in the long term it is not one that will live in the memory for many of the right reasons.

For now, we should salute the Australians, the deserved World Champions for another four years.

They have again raised the bar and must already be short odds to win four years time in the West Indies.