Has the International Cricket Council learnt from this experience? No. The next World Cup in 2015 is going to be precisely the opposite: long and blunt, 49 matches spread over 44 days, and no game will really matter until the quarter-finals.
Exactly the same as last time, in other words. Pfaffing around south Asia in 2011 for more than a month of qualifying matches produced the most stunning results in the history of international sport.
Yes, South Africa, India, England, West Indies, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand proved to be better at cricket than Zimbabwe, Kenya, Kenya, Bangladesh, Ireland and Holland.
Was not that a turn up for the books? Who could have dreamed that the quarter-finalists would be those first eight teams? It is just as well that we will have to go through the same process all over again in 2015, in 14 cities spread across Australia and New Zealand.
If there is one thing to be said for the format of the last World Cup and the next one, it is that it has to be better than the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies, which put in a powerful bid to be remembered as the worst-organised cricket tournament ever.
That was the one where India and Pakistan were both knocked out in the first week, to be replaced in the Super Eight stage by Bangladesh and Ireland, and West Indian fans ignored the event.
The format was drawn up by a group of people, gathered by the ICC’s chief executive Malcolm Speed, none of whom had ever played a first-class game of cricket.
So they were not unlucky when India were knocked out by Bangladesh in the first week: anyone who had played cricket could have told them that India, then, were slow starters, and the qualifying stage had to be arranged differently.
After the 2011 World Cup, in response to complaints about long-windedness, the ICC’s executive board announced the number of countries in 2015 would be reduced from 14 to 10, then abruptly reverted to 14.
They decided World Cups have to include at least four associate members: which can be done, only the two group stages should culminate in semi-finals, not quarter-finals, giving the qualifying stage an importance it now lacks.
So book your holidays now for February 2015 and make sure you do not miss epic qualifying clashes like England v Kenya or Namibia v India.
The ICC can get a good price out of broadcasters for a World Cup. It still does not know how to organise one.
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