Emptiness overshadows the excitement

Another match, another under-attendance, and the first phase of the Super Eights has finished. At this point, rum-punched bands of supporters were meant to be mashing up the Caribbean in their tens of thousands. It has been more like journalists punching in results into that clever predictor device on Microsoft Excel to choose where to go next. There weren't too many around for the Ireland v New Zealand game anyway. A journalist could have had a bench, even a room to himself. Are two billion really watching on telly?

Thank you, then, first of all to Bangladesh for making the next phase relevant. Their vigour and poise has been a pleasure and an inspiration. May they slay a thousand more giants.

Still, too much of something has been missing. Maybe too much did indeed happen in the first fortnight. After the death, was it really possible for anyone with a love for the sport to not feel like stepping back just a little? And I'm afraid the moan about missing subcontinent supporters and the organising must have to find a place in an overview.

At least West Indian organisers were showing signs of understanding their people. Rules applied of course. It was decided that one could obtain official sanction for musical instruments at the gate on match-day rather than at an office beforehand. Indeed, according to the newest ruling, people would be allowed so anarchic a liberty as leaving the stadium and re-entering if they so pleased.

If one must have to be reasonable, the cricket has not been all that flat. Some of it in fact has been quite good. There were two stunning finishes and for the most part the balance between bat and ball that Ian Chappell always reminds us is the first responsibility of administrators was maintained. Both pitches were on the slow side, Guyana's more so, but this should not have been a surprise. There was a bit in the first hour of the morning anyway. Shaun Tait was outstanding against England. The Irish giant Boyd Rankin was outstanding against England. Well, so was anyone against England's top. Tait, Shane Bond, Lasith Malinga and Daren Powell flew the flag for pace.

Malinga was the sensation. From the first this was a freak cricket knew it needed. He kisses the ball at the top of his run and expulses it from the umpire's lips. To watch him is to be shocked every time. Yorkers and slower balls merged in a wild-haired blur against South Africa late one afternoon. Yet the stadium was less than half-full to watch his history-making moments.

Other bowling did well too, wrist-spinners in Muttiah Muralitharan and Brad Hogg, left-armers in Daniel Vettori plus the dozen or so in the Bangladesh squad, while good seam did its steady stuff admirably as good seam ought to.

Matthew Hayden's three hours of calculated violence was indisputably the best innings of the second round, indeed the tournament, but none was as charming as Mohammad Ashraful's 87 against South Africa. "Sweet, boy, sweet", West Indians whistled while watching the little boy shimmy outside off stump and flip big fast bowlers behind the keeper. The partnership of the fortnight was Paul Nixon and Ravi Bopara versus Sri Lanka. The fielding of Irishmen was memorable, particularly William Porterfield at point, as were Murali's continuing excellence off his own bowling, Kumar Sangakkara's jackflash stumpings against West Indies and Herschelle Gibbs' flight through humid Guyanese air.

The sorriest sight was West Indian surrender. Indeed, nothing could have dampened spirits more than the opening squibs in Antigua. Battered by the events of the first fortnight, the World Cup needed an infusion of freshness and excellence. Such an opportunity too, for the home team and the world champs to kick things off in a stadium named after one of the great sons of the Caribbean, Sir Viv Richards. People did not show up, and neither really did the West Indies team. "I just believe that someone has held us by the throat and said 'no, I don't want you to shout anymore'," Richards said about the atmosphere. Presumably what he felt about the team was unprintable. It's been such a tournament that even the finest pieces of writing have been about what's been missing.

What else has been missing? Floodlights maybe. Caribbean crowds seemed to take to it at the hugely popular Stanford gig last year. Besides, regardless of how it magnifies the significance of the toss, one-day cricket is never so visually spectacular as under lights. If the Caribbean has traded tradition for modernity at its grounds, it may as well include the sexiest aspects.

Finally, the ICC's rankings too acknowledged that Australia are No. 1 and that them apart, places for the semis are still open. That is the key, and Grenada in particular has some cracking match-ups scheduled when the second phase begins with West Indies v South Africa on Tuesday. For the sake of the World Cup, it had better be a new day.