Ball tracking... we won't be seeing this in the new system.

The ICC’s chief executive committee has announced a range of new changes to international cricket which will impact on all forms and countries that participate on the global stage.

No doubt the biggest decision came with the DRS, the BCCI finally agreeing on a set of terms that will see the referral system compulsory at all international matches.

However, that set of terms doesn’t include ball tracking technology, meaning it will be extremely tough for umpires to overturn close lbw decisions.

But the ruling means that controversial heat sensor, Hot Spot, will be used – which is believed would effectively confirm whether a batsman has edged a ball.

There were a range of other notable decisions by the ICC, and at a glance, some of these changes included:

• Runners banned in all forms of international cricket
• More test matches for major nations
• New balls from both bowling ends in ODI’s
• Bowling/Batting Powerplays to be taken between overs 16 to 40 of an ODI
• Captain’s to be fined after two over-rate violations
• ICC to revisit Associate Nation participation in 2015 World Cup

Runners have begun to be an issue of late, especially since Andrew Strauss didn’t allow Graeme Smith to have one as he cramped in the 2009 Champions League.

However, the decision has received general support (ours as well!) because it gives an advantage to those players who have worked on their fitness and endurance.

Despite the success of the World Cup earlier this year in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the ICC has also made some tweaks to ensure the format isn’t crushed by the Twenty20 juggernaut.

The changing of Powerplays to a mandatory period between overs 16 and 40 aims to liven up the middle of the innings, which has long been criticised for a lack of excitement. Meanwhile, new balls from each bowling end aims at providing bowlers with the chance to get more swing and make life harder for batsmen.

Whilst probably one of the decisions which is most pleasing for those who want to see cricket continuously grow was that of Associate Nations involvement in the 2015 World Cup.

ICC Chief Haroon Lorgat said earlier in the year that the number of Associates would be reduced to two nations for 2015. However, the executive committee has proposed that such a decision be reviewed, providing more countries a chance in being involved with the ICC’s champagne event.

The full ICC council will meet on Thursday to finalise many of such changes, with the bulk expected to be implemented within weeks and months.

The World Cup is over, India are champs, Australia have fallen and someone please explain to Ravi Shastri that yes, there are only two sides on a coin.

Today we bring you all the fun of the Injury Time ICC World Cup Awards! So with no further delay let’s get started!

The Champions

India

After 28 long years of frustration the most passionate cricketing nation in the world finally has the trophy it always wanted. They applied themselves wonderfully, strong batting, disciplined bowling and for a change, decent fielding. After some early middle order woes, Suresh Raina came in to provide some end of innings glue and also super fielding. Zaheer Khan was the best quick bowler on the tournament and the young brigade really stepped up when the old heads failed. Dhoni was a master captain and saved his best innings for last. A much deserved win for India, who could be the new ‘Australia’ of world cricket (I’m sure they wouldn’t want that tag though!).

Player of the Tournament Award

Yuvraj Singh

Undeniably the best player this world cup, there can be no doubt of that. When you amass 362 runs, in eight innings, at an average of 90.50 and delivering a strike rate of 86.19, sometimes that alone would be enough. But add to that 15 wickets at 25.13 and you have a star. Yuvraj has been under pressure to hold his spot for quite a while in the India side. Doubt that’s a problem anymore.

Honourable mentions: Kumar Sangakkara, Johnny Trott, Zaheer Khan, Ryan ten Doeschate, Shahid Afridi.

One for the future... Imran was a surprise packet this World Cup.

Kevin O’Brien Award (Find of the Tournament)

Imran Tahir

Probably a controversial decision, but given the matches he played and wickets taken one thinks he will be huge for South African cricket in the future. He only played 5 matches but picked up 14 wickets at an amazing average of 10.71. With South Africa having lacked consistent quality in the spinning department, Tahir could be a gem.

Honourable Mentions: Collins Obuya, Ashish Bagai, Wahab Riaz, Robin Peterson, Harvir Baidwan.

Best Match Award

India v England

How could it not feature England. It was India’s second match and no one saw this game coming. The hosts were cruising to a score of 350+ thanks to a Sachin hundred, before some minor stutters to still total a huge 338. Most would think game over for England already, but Andrew Strauss played one of the great ODI innings to guide England to 272/2 with only 67needed of the last 10. That’s where the fun started thanks to a wicket from Zaks, a six from Shazad and a single from Swann it all ended even. It was a great showcase of one day cricket that feature twists, turns, runs, wickets and every other thing possible.

Honourable Mentions: India v Sri Lanka, England v Ireland, England v South Africa, Australia v Pakistan, New Zealand v South Africa.

The Don Award (Best Innings)

Mahela Jayawardene (v India)

Beauty... Legendary World Cup Final century.

Despite his century in the final being in vain, no one can deny the absolute brilliance about this knock. His country was struggling big time when he came out to the middle and had he thrown his wicket away the final would have skittled out. But his array of attacking shots, placing the ball in the gaps, not trying to hit it too hard, was a masterpiece performance. On any other day you’d think it would be the type of innings that would win you the World Cup. Batting with the lower order, Jayawardene sped things up at the end and nearly got Sri Lanka a competitive enough total. It was another remarkable World Cup final innings under immense pressure.

Honourable Mentions: Kevin O’Brien( v England), MS Dhoni (v Sri Lanka), Ricky Ponting (v India), Andrew Strauss (v India), Ross Taylor (v Pakistan).

Aakash Chopra Award (Biggest Let Down)

Yusuf Pathan

In a team filled of players who rocked the World Cup, Yusuf was easily the worst. Coming in with the end-of-innings-blaster reputation Yusuf failed to deliver. He averaged 14.80 in his six innings and that simply wasn’t good enough. He’s also a terrible excuse for part time spin and a poor fielder. Suresh Raina said thank you very much and took his spot. The second decline of the second Pathan perhaps, Irfan?

Honourable Mentions: Shoaib Akthar, Cameron White, Graeme Smith, James Anderson, Daniel Vettori.

South Africa fell well short... again.

The Tiger Woods Award (How Did We Mess This Up?)

South Africa v New Zealand

My word South Africa, when, oh when, will you ever learn? Chasing a low 222 for victory in the quarter-final against New Zealand, the Saffas were sitting at 4 for 121. They then lost 6 for 51 to complete another shocking cho.. I mean disappointing loss. You’re lucky England, you had this award tied up till this mess happened.

Honourable Mentions: South Africa (v England), England (v India), England (v Ireland), England (v Bangladesh), Bangladesh (v West Indies).

The Snapper Award (Best Catch)

Steve Smith (v Sri Lanka)

Probably the one thing young Smithy did right all tournament and this truly was a beauty. In a crunch game against Sri Lanka, Upul Tharanga threw his fists at a wide one and it looked destined for the boundary. But Smith had other ideas, leaping high, one-handed and gripping it out of thin air. A wonderful sight.

Honourable Mentions: Mahela Jayawardene (v Zimbabwe), Jesse Ryder (v Sri Lanka), Munaf Patel (v England), Robin Peterson (v New Zealand), Kieron Pollard (v Ireland)

Butter Fingers Award (Easiest Dropped Catch)

Kamran Akmal (v EVERYONE)

The controversial keeper copped a lot of flak for his work with the gloves during this world cup and frankly, he deserved it. He was so poor that it came a point where if he caught anything it was a surprise. He hit his peak against New Zealand dropping some of the easiest edges you’ll see. You have to see to believe.

Honourable Mentions: Pakistan, England.

She’s Outta Here Award (Best Six)

MS Dhoni (v Sri Lanka)

Given the circumstances, the form and the final, we couldn’t go past this one. With the game wrapped up for India in the final, MS fittingly signed the competition with a wonderful heave down the ground to seal the Cup for India. It looked effortless and cleared the boundary by miles. The power from the shot was unbelievable given the back-lift and was a demonstration that MS hasn’t lost it. Very, very close second to Pollard.

Honourable Mentions: Kieron Pollard (v Netherlands), Ross Taylor (v Pakistan), Hiral Patel (v Australia), Andrew Strauss (v India), MS Dhoni (v England).

Really Shahid, really?

Shahid Afridi Award (Most Annoying Wicket-Taking Celebration)

Shahid Afridi

Seriously Afridi. You’re meant to be the guy the young lads look up too. Yet those bloody raised arms/ ‘I’m the freaking best’ pose is getting silly. When you start to actually bat maybe it’ll get more acceptable (in hindsight it wont, get rid of it mate).

Jonty Rhodes Award (Best Run Out)

Chris Mpofu (v Australia)

As if Ricky Ponting wasn’t already under enough pressure to perform, Chris Mpofu put him under ever more. A flick from Clarke to deep midwicket looked like an easy two. But Mpofu in a flowing motion picked up the ball and launched it some 30-40 metres on the fly and hit the non-strikers stumps directly. It was a piece of magic in an otherwise disappointing World Cup for Zimbabwe.

Honourable Mentions: Hamish Bennet (v Zimbabwe), Brendon McCullum (v Zimbabwe), Steve Smith (v Sri Lanka), Ian Bell (v South Africa), Shahid Afridi (v Canada).

Tiger Woods Award (Biggest Controversy)

The Coin Toss

Really too much of a big deal was made out of this, how hard is it to toss a coin as they say? Sanga called heads, no one heard it, Dhoni heard tails, it landed heads. Do over. Same result and Sri Lanka batted. It all fizzled out in the end and no one will really remember it too much, however, if Sri Lanka ended up winning or India’s innings crumbled batting second, we might have heard a tad more about it.

The Chocolate Award (Is it Good or Bad?)

UDRS

The Umpire Decision Review System was again under the spotlight again, in particular the quite foreign 2.5 metre rule. It all began when India appealed an Ian Bell lbw not out decision and controversy grew from there. However, on a whole the system did work well. We also saw that without hot spot, lbws are the only real thing you can appeal against. Although, perhaps the lack of hot spot ensured the UDRS was a little less under pressure than in recent times. Is it good or bad? Nothing conclusive as yet.

Symonds v Harbhajan Award (Biggest Farce/Digrace)

The ICC

This news comes just after the Cup finished, the fact that the associate nations like Ireland, Netherlands and Kenya will play no role in the future few World Cups. It’s a decision of utter stupidity and what can only be assumed as bribery. Ireland in particular will be filthy, they’ve beaten test playing nations in the past two Cups and can really mix it in the ODI format. How this decision was achieved I have no idea. Length of the tournament? Big wins? No clue. The fact is that it is a WORLD CUP not strongest teams only cup. Imagine if we only saw Argentina, Brazil, England, Portugal, Spain etc battling out for the FIFA World Cup. Get your act together ICC.

The Verdict

Best World Cup Ever

It started off slowly with some big wins for the test playing nations, but as teams got accustomed to the conditions things got more exciting. The associate nations gave everything, even getting some great results, England were all over the place and New Zealand continued to defy, making another semi-final. The cricket was really of the highest quality and the combination of that with some below-par stuff in nervous situation resulted in some great matches. This was the World Cup ODI cricket needed after the joke that was West Indies 2007. Let’s just hope ICC change their decision before Australia and New Zealand come around in 2015!

Majestic... Hashim Amla was one of the many stars in the South Africa v India series.

However, after the three tests, solitary T20 and five ODI’s, it is perhaps fitting that the aggregate score was left level at 4-4.

Each team won one test, South Africa won three ODI’s, whilst India won two ODI’s and the T20.

The tightness of the series is testament to the 4-4 score line, with neither team every really getting ahead of their opponents. It is perhaps fitting to, as at this moment, these two sides are probably the most consistent over all three formats of cricket currently being played.

It also no doubt makes for what should be quite a fascinating World Cup in a few weeks time, with both these teams in decent form, Australia playing well against England and New Zealand snapping their losing streak against the always lively Pakistan.

India has found a proven match winner in Yusuf Pathan, who will enter the tournament as one of the best limited overs batsman in the world.

Meanwhile, South Africa’s Hashim Amla continues his months of good form, proving his ability in test matches is just as good in ODI’s.

New stars were also unearthed including promising young South African fast bowler, Lonwabo Tsotsobe and power hitter Morne van Wyk.

On the Indian side of things Cheteshwar Pujara was impressive despite scoring massive runs while Parthiv Patel looks a different player to a few years ago. We also saw a magic spell of test match bowling by the rejuvenated Sreesanth in the third test, however, he does need some fine tuning on his attitude.

Dale Steyn proved his status as the best fast bowler in the world and his mini battle with possibly the second best seamer in Zaheer Khan was a joy to watch during the tests.

Although, there are a couple of form concerns for India with Virender Sehwag and Suresh Raina as they head into the World Cup.

On the whole though, this Indian tour of South Africa has indeed been memorable. Sachin’s 50^th test hundred, Ntini’s farewell, rise of Tsotsobe, Jaques Kallis’ master classes and of course India’s ability to fight back was impressive.

Bring on the World Cup.

Twenty20... It's constant entertainment.

On an international stage we have seen the rise of the Twenty20 World Cup, won most recently by Pakistan which in itself brings greater interest to this form of the game as Pakistan aren’t considered powerhouses of international cricket, and on the domestic stage we have Twenty20 domestic leagues in India (The IPL), Australia (the Big Bash) and England (Twenty20 Cup).

We have also seen the emergence of the Twenty20 Champions League which takes all the domestic winners of their respective T20 competitions and pits them against each other to determine the world champion T20 outfit.

Not bad for a form of cricket that was only established in 2003, right?

This massive growth in the shortest version of the game has shown just how popular T20 cricket has become to fans from all over the world. A whole match can be watched in just over three hours, which is a lot more convenient than the other shorter form of the game in One Day Internationals (ODIs)…well that and the spectacle that is T20 cricket. Fast paced, explosive action for twenty overs each side that excites audiences and puts them on the edge of their seat. That will pull crowds every day of the week.

Records often tumble on a game-by-game basis in this form of the game and some of the figures are astounding. Yuvraj Singh currently holds the record for the fastest fifty in T20 cricket in an amazing twelve balls. Yes that’s right, TWELVE balls. That is a strike rate of over four hundred. Let me put that in Lehman’s terms for those who aren’t familiar with cricketing jargon; Singh was hitting an average of 4.16 runs for every ball he faced in that innings. It’s no wonder why people keep flooding the grounds for every T20 game held at either state or international level. It is almost like a new buzz and atmosphere comes over the ground in a T20 game.

Compare this, in stark contrast, to the current state of ODIs. To put it simply, they are in trouble. Viewers are finding them boring, with generally only the first five overs and the last five overs creating any excitement for the crowd. The middle forty overs in each innings are leaving a lot to be desired from the crowd’s point of view as they are growing weary of the slow run rates and lack of boundaries generalised with this part of the innings.

Compare the T20 match between Australia and Pakistan at the MCG on Friday night. A whopping 60,045 people turned out to watch the twenty overs per side fixture. Two days later at the same venue, a meagre 25,463 people showed to watch the opening one day match against the West Indies. Hardly impressive figures when compared to the massive numbers pulled by T20 crowds, even with the exciting Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard featuring in the travelling side.

But what is the remedy to these falling numbers and what seems to be an insurmountable task of becoming the most popular shorter form of the game? There have been suggestions to shorten ODIs to forty overs per side, but in reality, will this make this form of the game any better? It will surely just shorten the length of the game and will be seen as a way of replicating T20s, driving popularity even further down.

Another idea is to shorten the series length of ODIs, which seems to be the most feasible idea as 7 match series’ can often be stale and repetitive if a side happens to take an unassailable lead. Making ODIs a scarcer spectacle in cricket could also drive up anticipation and therefore numbers entering grounds.

Whatever decision the ICC makes, which is bound to be forced upon them soon with the current state of the game, the T20 format of the game not only looks like a smash-hit, but is also here to stay.

The explosive Jamaican is predicting a Windies rout.

After Australia won the test series many thought they would, one might forgiven for thinking they did it easily and without competition, especially after the first Test. But the Windies battled back and with a bit of luck might have won a test or two.

Now they have come back with their ODI squad to resume the final battle against the Aussies. But can they deliver?

They’re missing talismanic players in Dwayne Bravo, Shiv Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan. But they’ve got arguably the biggest hitter the game has ever seen, and certainly their most important player in captain, Chris Gayle.

The way he single-handedly destroyed the PMXI days ago was a testament to ‘Mr. Cool’ as he is now famously dubbed. But words don’t lie.

Proving he is under absolutely no pressure coming into this series, the Jamaican provided a bold statement to the media when asked if he was intimidated by Australia.

“It’s not (intimidating), to be honest with you,”

“We’re going to beat them 4-1, so not to worry.”

How can you not like this man?

There’s no doubt that if he fires the rest of his side will as well, so bring it on I say!

Having not lost a game all summer, Australia should be confident. Yet, we saw just what under-estimating your opponents can do in the Twenty20 International against Pakistan. The visitors were down on confidence, had their heads down and were out of luck. But they were also and still are T20 champions of the world.

They were unlucky to lose in the end, but the Australians got a warning, so there is no reason as to why they should expect another easy series here.

There will be a few players looking to push on and establish themselves in this series, especially on the bowling front. Guys like Ryan Harris and Clint McKay were impressive against Pakistan, but can they keep their positions?

Talking about bowlers, young Kemar Roach is back and will be again looking to torment Ricky Ponting like he did in the test series, so there will be a keen eye out on his performance.

The other player that seems to have slipped under the radar for the Windies is the explosive Kieron Pollard. Sure, he is inexperienced, but he can definitely hit the ball, and far at that.

All said it should be a highly entertaining series. The two sides had plenty to say to each other during the tests, so hopefully we get a bit more today!

Finally, sorry Chris, I’m going for a 3-2 series win for Australia! I hope you prove me wrong!

The first ODI begins at 2.25pm AEDT at the MCG.