Lasith Malinga's four wickets in four balls is one of the highlights of the World Cup © Getty Images

When Malcolm Speed admits something isn't right you can bet your life that it's horribly wrong. After spending most of the last few weeks defending this turgid tournament, he now accepts that the format is too long. It is possible to create a format that incorporates associate members, gives the better teams less chance of being hijacked, and is done and dusted in thirty days. It took me five minutes to think of such a format, and I'm sure anybody reading this blog could come up with something similar.

I've seen every World Cup so far and I have no doubt that this is the most tedious ever--and not because Pakistan were knocked out. The semi-finalists were decided too quickly, as were the semi-finals themselves. The business end of the tournament hasn't done the business. A collaboration between the ICC and the local organising committee has managed to alienate fans and kill the atmosphere. The people of the Caribbean deserved better.

At least the best two teams have reached the final, which could be a classic, but even then will struggle to sweeten the bitter taste this tournament has created. Australia have been truly formidable, extending their remarkable record in World Cup cricket. If they win on Sunday, who could begrudge them their brilliant success? Do McGrath, Gilchrist, Hayden, and Ponting deserve any less?

But for each over-whelming favourite there is an over-whelmingly supported underdog. Hundreds of millions of cricket fans will be rooting for Mahela's Magicians simply because it would be great to see somebody other than Australia win. More than that the magic moments of this World Cup--Malinga's four in four and the final-ball defeat of England--have belonged to Sri Lanka. There is a variety in their bowling--slingers, swingers, and doosras--that gives them the best chance of humbling Australia. That's before we get into the poetic justice of Murali triumphing over the country that has brought him most humilaition.

Australia have been awesome but the moments have belonged to Sri Lanka. Either team would be a deserving winner. Take your pick, power or magic? I choose magic.

	How about making Shahid Afridi the vice-captain for one-dayers? © Getty Images

Despite public proclamations of unity, the Pakistan board (PCB) will have to find a way of keeping their venerable "seniors" on board. One solution to a tussle between seniors is the "Two captain strategy" (one in one-day cricket and the other in Test cricket). But the PCB has sensibly concluded Malik can do both, in which case I propose the "Two vice-captain strategy." In a nutshell, it goes something like this:

1 An age-old technique for reining in a delinquent elder is to give him some responsibility.

2 Pakistan has a few of these, so why not appoint two vice-captains?

3 Younis Khan has ruled himself out of both positions. In any case there's no point him being deputy to Malik since he has decided not to captain Pakistan. Younis's moment has gone (he remains a certainty for my Test XI though).

4 Salman Butt, the champion of the adolescent vote, has enough on his plate re-establishing himself as an international cricketer to have an extra distraction. Salman's moment is yet to come.

5 Abdul Razzaq has captained but it was a performance that helped his opponents rather than his own team. Razzaq's moment was best forgotten.

6 Shoaib Akhtar should have contaminated his chances of winning a position of responsibility just as he contaminated his blood and urine with nandrolone. Shame, he might have been a fascinating leader. Shoaib's moment is wishful thinking.

7 Shahid Afridi should be in every one-day team but he might miss the cut in Test cricket. Give the gusto of Afridi a blast. It is the moment to make him one-day vice-captain.

8 Mohammad Yousuf should be in every Test team though half an eye on the next World Cup might render him quickly irrelevant in one-day cricket. Give the lofty elegance of Yousuf another try. It is the moment to make him Test vice-captain.

9 Once a future successor (it may be a long time in the future) is identified he should take over from Yousuf as the Test vice-captain. The successor's moment is not now.

10 Oh yes. Inzamam should do a Lara, announce a farewell Test in the next home series, and watch the boys play well without him. The big man deserves a parting moment of splendour.

	Shoaib Malik is seen as a good choice for the future as Pakistan look to rebuild © AFP

Later this week the PCB is expected to confirm the rise of Shoaib Malik. His appointment as Pakistan captain will be a welcome change to the tried and failed method of handing the job to the most senior player.

Younis Khan's perplexing decision to snub the captaincy left the PCB with a testing decision. In the seniors corner, Mohammad Yousuf was expressing his willingness to lead his country. In the less-seniors corner, Shoaib Malik was keeping quiet. Elsewhere, Shahid Afridi (with some justification) and Abdul Razzaq (with no justification) were probably wondering why they'd blown it. Salman Butt might have begun to picture himself as Pakistan's first non-playing captain. And Shoaib Akhtar will have been regretting nandrolone more than ever.

In the end, the PCB has done well to choose a young captain, a smart cricketer, and a star of Mobilink Jazz adverts and Hum Aik Hain videos. If ever there was a time for Pakistan's cricketers to heed the words of a song this is it.

Factions and disloyalty should be greeted with a zero-tolerance policy, a young captain requires a clear demonstration of confidence from his cricket board. It is disappointing that the first leaks about Malik's elevation have been accompanied by an official stating that "there isn't really another suitable candidate around." This new era has to be launched with positives about the new captain and not any grudging excuses. Let's hope for better at the press conference.

Similarly, the PCB has to rethink its decision to appoint Malik on a "series by series" basis. A captain can be sacked at any moment and this series by series approach simply breeds uncertainty and disloyalty. Indeed there are hardly any series to speak of over the next few months and this policy becomes a way of undermining the new captain's authority right from the start.

Malik has to face a few challenges of his own too. It takes skill to handle people who are more experienced and win their full support--particularly in a culture steeped in hierarchy--but it is by no means an insurmountable problem. Imran Khan faced similar challenges when he took over but he quickly established his authority as his own performance jumped to a new level.

But Malik, unlike Imran, is yet to convince everyone that he fully deserves his place in both teams. His footwork--or lack of it--is a particular worry. Nonetheless, Malik strikes me as the kind of cricketer who will lift his game, fight, and accept the responsibility. I don't expect captaincy to propel him to the level it did Imran but I'd be hopeful that he can quash any doubts about his selection.

Malik's leadership is unproven on the world stage although he has captained with some distinction in domestic cricket. Unfortunately any good work was undone by his decision to deliberately lose a Twenty20 match. But his critics are being unfair. Malik's behaviour while unacceptable was a protest against the way the rules of the competition were being implemented and not a case of match-fixing in the sense that we understand it. Still, Malik's conduct will be under strict scrutiny and he needs to restore some credibility for himself and his country.

For the first time in months Pakistan cricket has moved in the right direction. It feels good to write that. It will feel even better if Pakistan begin to display urgency, bravery, competitiveness, and above all professionalism. The talent, we know, is there already. Can Shoaib Malik make the most of it?

	Captaincy? Oh get away from me! © AFP

Pakistan's cricketers must be quite confused. One minute they are appearing before a parliamentary committee, the next it's one set up by the PCB for reasons of "performance evaluation." In between there are ad-hoc committees on television, where the multiplication of channels has spawned an orgy of pontification and inquisition about the malign state of affairs in Pakistan cricket. Oh yes, and let's not forget the burning effigies.

In the wake of all this angst Younis Khan has declined the captaincy. Nothing predicts behaviour like behaviour, as any good psychiatrist will tell you, and Younis has already shown his reluctance to take on the captaincy unless he is perfectly happy. I wonder how somebody could refuse the leadership of his country at a moment such as this? When Younis turned it down before the Champions Trophy I received an email from Bob Woolmer that described how baffled he was by Younis's behaviour. And Bob always supported Younis.

I think Younis should have taken the job if it was offered to him. As Imran Khan said, why become vice-captain in the first place? But whatever the true reasons behind this
decision at least he had the good sense to clear the air and the battle between the rest can begin. What I can say with certainty is that this isn't a problem that will be resolved by the performance evaluation committee.

Many of us have been through this movie before. When you don't know what to do but want to look proactive, form a committee. I can't remember anything good ever coming out of one of these committees, largely because they comprise people whose opinion you couldn't care less about and who don't really know what they are doing. Consequently they fail to hit the mark or be taken seriously.

The current mobile inquest, the one supposedly designated to investigate performance, has only produced one piece of wisdom (the stuff PJ Mir came out with wasn't a revelation to anybody who has observed this team closely over the last year or so), and that wisdom was produced by somebody who hasn't appeared before the committee. Shaharyar Khan, the former diplomat and chairman of the PCB, asked a simple question: Why is Salim Altaf, a key player in the World Cup debacle, now sitting in judgment upon himself?

Well said, Mr Khan. His successor Dr Ashraf mumbled some platitudes about integrity in his first major press conference since his boss refused his resignation. Integrity isn't just a word to toss around to impress your listeners with, you have to earn it through your deeds and your actions. Salim Altaf's seat on the performance evaluation committee is a bad start to this age of accountability and integrity. Indeed, his committee is a touring three-ring circus whose conclusions will be consigned to the dustbin of history like all the other committees-cum-circuses that went before it.

What a cracking start. Things can only get better, you might think. But then again, that's what Tony Blair sang a decade ago and look what he did.

	Aaqib Javed looks to be a favourite and might be worth a punt with batting and fielding coaches in support © Getty Images

1 Choose a captain on merit not hierarchy, for positive reasons not negative. When Inzamam was made captain, I asked Ramiz Raja, then CEO of the PCB, why? He replied, with a shrug of his shoulders, that Inzamam was most senior and there was nobody else. Let's not make that mistake again (in other words don't appoint Mohammad Yousuf by default).

2 Choose a captain with energy, attitude, and ideas. Pakistan cricket made something of itself in the 1980s and 1990s because it adopted a positive mindset. Let's have no more lazy preparations, fearfulness, and cerebral vacancy.

3 Choose a captain who is capable of balancing his religious beliefs and his cricketing responsibilities. While Pakistan's players have every right to be as religious as they wish, they must know that their job is to win cricket matches. Nobody should be ostracised or made uncomfortable for not being as pious as the most pious member of the team. Religion, for cricketers, should be a private matter not a badge of honour.

4 Choose a coach who is dynamic and will complement the captain. The main problem identified by Bob Woolmer was the inability of Pakistan's players to learn. My view is that this has everything to do with the educational level of modern Pakistani cricketers. They don't need to be university graduates, of course, but a certain level of education would better equip them to learn in all areas of life. Bob's style was a gentle word here and a friendly nudge there but both the young undercooked and the old overcooked stars probably require some more direct advice.

5 Choose a coach who played no longer ago than in the last decade. Let's prefer new thinking over old.

6 Choose a coach and captain who are both untainted by the match-fixing controversy. Inzamam and Mushtaq Ahmed were both criticised by Judge Qayyum. Inzamam's statement that he was unaware of Qayyum's recommendations about Mushtaq is either a grand deception or jaw-dropping negligence. Let's make integrity an important criterion for selection of the captain and coach.

7 Choose long-term success over short-term gains. The pressure to succeed is huge but after such a dismal failure expectations will be low. Now is the time to patiently build a team to win the next World Cup and not get in a sweat of desperation about winning the next tournament in Malaysia.

8 Choose wisely 1: Although candidates are few in both areas, the potential to get it wrong is huge. The obvious choice for captain is Younis Khan but his first outing has made most people rather nervous that he might have flattered to deceive and doesn't quite have the good sense that a captain requires. His reported reluctance to take on the job doesn't bode well. A true leader would seize the captaincy and vow to pull everybody in line. Alternatively, Mohammad Yousuf is the wrong personality to lead, which only leaves Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi as contenders. Malik's time will come but Afridi would be an intriguing gamble.

9 Choose wisely 2: The list of genuine contenders for the coaching slot is even more limited. Imran Khan has promoted Aaqib Javed, whose record with the U19s is impressive. Intikhab Alam, the coach in Imran's era, has been tipped for the job but is surely out of his time? Mudassar Nazar has been mentioned in dispatches but his last stint was a flop. You can bet that Javed Miandad, another former coach, will be fancying a return. Assuming only Pakistanis will be interested after Bob Woolmer's death, two others worth considering are Rashid Latif and Abdul Qadir, who both run cricket academies. This is a tough one. How do you follow Bob? Indeed what's the rush? Aaqib looks to be favourite and might be worth a punt with batting and fielding coaches in support.

10 Choose in haste, repent at leisure. As I said, what's the rush? Pakistan's schedule is barren for the next few months, some nonsense called a Performance Evaluation Committee has already been created in haste and is conducting a haphazard mock-trial, and the shock of defeat and death is raw in the minds of players, management, and administrators. It would be best for the new appointments to be made in consultation with the new national selectors, since the current lot have tendered their resignations. But that degree of co-ordination would be asking too much.

Anybody who was awestruck by the West Indian teams of the 1970s and 1980s and captivated by the allure of calypso cricket will be bitterly disappointed. I remember the first time Sky showed a live Test series from the Caribbean, England were routed but the atmosphere that shone out of my television screen brightened many cold, dark evenings.

When the World Cup was awarded to the West Indies everybody expected to be touched by that same warmth, either in person or via HD, LCD, or cathode ray. Instead, the World Cup has served up a soulless experience, worsened by the death of Bob Woolmer, the elimination of India, Pakistan, and possibly West Indies, and a ticketing policy that has removed the atmosphere from the tournament. A conspiracy theorist might blame the ICC for all three of these calamities--for various reasons from match-fixing to bad planning--but that presumably would be unfair?

As a fan of West Indian cricket I want this World Cup to succeed. It still can. Belatedly, more imaginative ticketing policies are being implemented. This may be too little too late but let's hope not. There are still plenty of big matches to look forward to, and yesterday's thriller between England and Sri Lanka might be the turning point as teams become more desperate to secure points. Finally, West Indies can still qualify for the semi-finals, and I hope they do. Cricket needs to be strong in all four corners of the globe for it to grow as a sport, and anybody who loves cricket must want the West Indian team and their supporters to be a major force again.

And what's all this wishful thinking got to do with Pak Spin? Well, apart from a thrilling tournament being good for cricket and West Indian cricket in particular, I want those international losers from Pakistan (and India) to regret and curse every moment of their absence from this World Cup. I want them to view the levels of professionalism on display and understand what they need to do. I want them to be desperately hungry for success next time--so hungry that it hurts, just like it hurts their fans to see them out of the tournament.

For the sake of South Asia, bring on the pain, bring on the calypso.

	Wasim Akram is the greatest bowler of his generation © Getty Images

Glenn McGrath, the human metronome, took Wasim Akram's record of most wickets in World Cup cricket. Australia have dominated the World Cup since Pakistan beat them at Headingley in 1999 thanks largely to McGrath's brilliance and the record is well deserved.

It says something about Pakistan's World Cup that their only bowler to set a world record in this tournament was Mohammad Yousuf who took a wicket with his only ball.

About the only positive I will take away from this tournament from a Pakistani perspective is the way that his contemporaries have acclaimed Wasim Akram as the greatest bowler of his generation. When that accolade comes from Brian Lara, the greatest batsman of the same generation, then that is high praise indeed.

Similarly, a host of Australians have stood up at the moment of McGrath's achievement to agree with Lara. That's saying something too since these are Australians who played in the last two decades, when their team ruled world cricket.

(As an aside, it has been interesting to hear the insight of Australian cricketers who have turned to commentary--I have always been impressed by Michael Slater but Damien Fleming has been a revelation. It just shows that success at cricket requires sharp brains, a topic I will return to in relation to Pakistan cricket.)

Wasim Akram was a colossus in world cricket, and the World Cup story was closely entwined with his own in the 1990s. It began with an inspirational triumph in 1992, when his late order hitting and double wicket burst swung the final for Pakistan. Everybody already knew that Wasim could make the ball talk but he went and did in a World Cup final.

Post Imran, the future looked to belong to Wasim but it never properly worked out the way it should have. In 1996, he missed the quarter-final defeat to India with a rib injury. And the 1999 campaign was a triumph but for the disaster of the final and a stumble against Bangladesh. On both occasions, as now, unsubstantiated accusations of match-fixing complicated the mourning.

That 1999 side, to my mind, was probably the best Pakistan has ever fielded at a World Cup and they played like world beaters. Waqar Younis was 12th man for heaven's sake. Indeed, the victory over Australia at Headingley was perhaps the finest by a Pakistan team in a World Cup outside the final two performances in 1992.

The resources available to Pakistan cricket in the 1990s allowed an administrative complacency to set in that has encouraged its foundations to crumble away. It created a complacency among the players too that manifested itself in sometimes hopeless performances.

Despite all his records, many people wonder if Wasim and his team could have achieved even more? Perhaps he and they could have. But let's remember he achieved all he did despite a career made more difficult by diabetes and the crazy politics of Pakistan cricket. Let's also remember that, like McGrath and like Lara, he achieved the utmost respect of his contemporaries. No higher praise is possible.