Sneddon hits out at World Cup

Former New Zealand Cricket CEO Martin Snedden has become the latest prominent figure to criticise the recent Cricket World Cup, saying he rated it “average to poor”. The length of the tournament and the quality of cricket were the two he cited as most damaging, but he also mentioned the poor handling by the police of the investigation into Bob Woolmer’s death and the high hotel and travel prices in the Caribbean nations.

He blamed the pitches and the weakness of the competing teams for the poor quality: “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.”

“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.”

Sneddon’s comments, reported by the Herald On Sunday, come just after finishing with NZC to take a position in the organisation committee for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. He said the 2007 cricket event would serve as an example of what a global sporting event should not be.