There were no positive dope tests at the recent World Cup in the West Indies, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Thursday.

A total of 68 players were tested during the 47-day event which ended on April 28 with Australia clinching an unprecedented third successive titles.

Two players from each team were chosen randomly in 15 of the 51 Cup games and from two warm-up matches.

"The fact that all drug tests at the ICC Cricket World Cup proved negative is a great result for the game," chief executive Malcolm Speed said in a statement.

"It sends out a very positive message, something everyone connected with the game can be very proud of."

Although cricket is not widely associated with doping, the sport was rocked last year when Pakistan pacemen Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif were axed for the ICC Champions Trophy following positive tests for banned steroid nandrolone.

They were initially banned but an appeals panel of the Pakistan Cricket Board cleared them and lifted their suspensions.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), of which the ICC is a signatory, has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the decision to clear them.

Both were subsequently withdrawn from the World Cup squad after being declared unfit by the board's medical panel.

They might have walked away with the coveted World Cup trophy, but Australians were on Monday shaking their heads at the bizarre ending to the biggest event in cricket's one-day calendar.

"Victory in tour de farce" trumpeted Sydney's Daily Telegraph, which bemoaned the official bungling that saw the last minutes of the final against Sri Lanka played play out in near pitch-black darkness.

Confusion over whether the game had finished, which saw Australia celebrate victory for ten minutes before being asked to play three more overs, had reduced the competition to an "international laughing stock," the paper said.

The criticism did not stop at the rain-interrupted final played at Bridgetown's Kensington Oval but extended to the entire tournament, which was dismissed as too long and boring.

"The 2007 tournament will go down in cricketing history as being short on organisation and long on duration," The Australian daily sniped in an editorial.

The contest was overshadowed by the murder of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer after his team were stunned by cricket minnows Ireland, triggering concerns that match-fixing syndicates had again infiltrated the game.

Moreover, the World Cup was "dull and one-sided", with Australia comfortably winning every game they played, leaving outgoing coach John Buchanan to say the difference between the Aussies and the rest was as "between night and day," it said.

AUSSIE DOMINANCE

Such was the dominance of the Australians in the limited overs game that tail-enders Glenn McGrath, Nathan Bracken and Shaun Tait never had to bat.

The Sydney Morning Herald, under the headline "Blind led the blind," decried the competition hosted by the West Indies as the "most tedious of tournaments".

The absurdity of the Barbados final, it said, was "in keeping with a tournament that has witnessed everything from the murder of a coach to the erosion of supporter goodwill courtesy of overly officious administrators."

The Australian eleven will nonetheless be afforded the respect of champions on their return, with a public welcome home in Sydney on Thursday to congratulate the team and bid farewell to McGrath, who retired after the final.

In McGrath's home town of Narromine, locals are considering erecting a bronze statue of the lanky 37-year-old paceman or naming a park in his honour.

"Australia's victory at the Cricket World Cup against Sri Lanka yesterday was nothing short of brilliant," The Australian said in its editorial.

"But while the team soared to ever greater heights, the Cup itself sank to new lows, with a farcical final that saw players, umpires, commentators and organisers literally groping in the dark."

Australia's Adam Gilchrist credited a squash ball stuffed inside his glove after pulverising Sri Lanka's bowlers with his match-winning 149 in the World Cup final on Saturday.

Gilchrist hit 13 fours and eight sixes from just 104 balls and pointed to his glove as he celebrated the fastest hundred in the history of Cup finals.

"I was pretty pumped up," he told a news conference after being named the player-of-the-final. Australia beat Sri Lanka by 53 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis method for truncated games to complete a unique hat-trick of World Cup titles.

Australia piled up 281 for four in the 38-overs-a-side match after a delayed start due to rain. Sri Lanka ended at 215 for eight after two more overs were deducted due to the weather.

"I also had a little message, to wave to someone at home in Australia about something in my glove," he said.

"(It was) the guy (Bob Meuleman) who helps me with my batting at home," he explained. "I had a squash ball in my bottom hand in the glove that I use in training just to help with my grip.

"I decided I will use that in this World Cup in a match but hadn't.

LAST WORDS

"His last words to me before I left the indoor training centre where I train with him in Perth were 'if you are going to use it, make sure when you score a hundred in the final you show me and prove to me you got it in there'.

"I had stayed true to that."

Gilchrist bettered skipper Ricky Ponting's 140 not out in the 2003 final against India, the previous highest score in a World Cup final.

"What I do know is the belief that arrives from the teammates around you and the coaching staff around you and everyone involved," he said.

"That belief those guys gave me allowed me to go out and play with freedom."

Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene said Gilchrist had put the game out of his side's reach.

"It was a brilliant innings," he said. "Unfortunately, I was the opposition captain looking at it."

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene believes that Australia have that something extra which separates champions from the others.

Australia won the World Cup for a record third successive time when they completed a 53-run victory on Duckworth-Lewis method against Sri Lanka in virtual darkness at the Kensington Oval in Barbados on Saturday.

"I think they always keep improving. A lot of teams have competed really well against Australia in the past, but maybe when they come to a big tournament they seem to have that little bit of extra," said Jayawardene.

"They have different ways of going about things. They went unbeaten when it was difficult to remain unbeaten in the tournament because of different conditions and opposition, but they played really good cricket."

Australia are unbeaten in their 29 Cup matches beginning with 1999, with their last 22 wins coming under Ricky Ponting's captaincy.

"Probably wait for some of their players to retire soon. One (fast bowler Glenn McGrath) is going," Jayawardene said when asked of the gap between Australia and other nations.

"We thought we had a very decent chance in the final. We initially thought that it's a 100-over game and had an even chance, but they proved us wrong. They have some very good players who deliver in big games."

The Sri Lankan captain was all praise for Australian wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist who smashed an unbeaten 149 - the highest ever in a World Cup final - off 104 balls with eight sixes and 13 fours.

Man-of-the-match Gilchrist's blitz helped Australia post a challenging 281-4 off 38 overs. Sri Lanka were 206-7 after their a rain-revised target of 269 off 36 overs.

"That was a brilliant innings and unfortunately I was the opposing captain looking at it. He did the same to us in one of the VB finals at Brisbane," Jayawardene said, referring to Gilchrist's century at Brisbane last year.

"I can't take anything away from our guys because they bowled in good areas. It was solid hitting. You can't control when Gilly is in that kind of mood and it was difficult chasing after that."

Jayawardene said he was still satisfied with his team's performance in the tournament because the players put in a lot of hard work.

"I am very proud of the guys because they put in very good effort. When we were leaving Sri Lanka, we were a good team but no one expected us to be in the final," said Jayawardene.

"We proved a lot of people wrong because we worked very hard in the last six months. I am really proud of the way the guys performed in the tournament.

"I am disappointed with the final because this is a lifetime opportunity for you to win a World Cup. We didn't play that well, but obviously it was because of a brilliant knock."

"You try different things, but sometimes even a mistimed shot went over the ropes, so it was Gilly for you. You just have to wait for an opportunity. I thought 240-250 would have been a very score competitive to chase."

Sri Lanka looked in the game when opener Sanath Jayasuriya (63) and wicketkeeper-batsman Kumar Sangakkara (54) put on 116 for the second wicket.

"The way Sanath and Sanga chased we thought we had a chance, but after the rain we had to go for the Duckworth-Lewis method and take few chances. We lost three wickets and that was it," said Jayawardene.

Australian skipper Ricky Ponting hailed Adam Gilchrist for his "unbelievable" 149 after sweeping to an unprecedented hat-trick of consecutive World Cup titles on Saturday.

Wicketkeeper Gilchrist scored the biggest and fastest hundred in a World Cup final to cap Australia's virtually unchallenged run through the tournament with a 53-run victory over Sri Lanka at the Kensington Oval.

"He hasn't played a better one," Ponting said. "To go out in a World Cup final and play 149 off 104 balls, hardly missed the middle of the bat for most of the day, it is an unbelievable innings.

"One of the best innings you will ever see and it was one of the best innings I have ever seen.

"Matty Hayden in many ways has been the batsman of the tournament and he (Gilchrist) has been at the other end looking pretty shaky and scratching.

"There was one difference in both teams today, in the outcome of the game and that was Gilly's innings.

"To take the game away from the opposition as Gilly did was pretty special stuff and to happen in the final says a lot about the bloke."

Gilchrist has scored half centuries at least in each of his three World Cup final appearances.

Bleary-eyed Australians celebrated a third consecutive World Cup win on Sunday morning, with Prime Minister John Howard among those who watched Ricky Ponting's side triumph over Sri Lanka in Barbados.

"Congratulations to Ricky and the boys," Howard told local television on Sunday after the 53-run victory on the Duckworth-Lewis method.

With the match scheduled to have started at 2330 local time, Howard slept as rain delayed the opening of the match at the Kensington Oval, but awoke at his home in Sydney to watch Adam Gilchrist pulverise the Sri Lankan attack for 149 from just 104 balls.

"The rain sort of delayed the start, I then got up in the middle of the night to see some of Gilchrist, then I went back to bed then I watched the last two hours," he said.

Howard described the victory as "wonderful" and paid special tribute to Glenn McGrath, playing his final match in the Australian green and gold.

"To Glenn McGrath, that lanky bloke from Naramine, thanks for a wonderful contribution to Australian cricket," Howard said.

"He joins the greats of Australian fast bowlers, he's a wonderful bloke, he's been a wonderful player and he went out on a very high note."

World Cup match referee Jeff Crowe admitted on Saturday that Sri Lanka had been mistakenly asked to come back on the field for a final three overs in the rain-reduced World Cup final against Australia.

Australia were celebrating their third consecutive World Cup victory after the Sri Lanka batsman had gone off for bad light when the teams were told they would have to complete the final three overs or come back on Sunday to finish the match.

The game, in fact, was already completed under international cricket rules because Sri Lanka had batted the minimum 20 of their reduced allotted 36 overs and failed to reach their target.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting and his Sri Lanka counterpart Mahela Jayawardene agreed that the Australian spinners, instead of fast bowlers, would bowl the final overs because of the bad light.

Crowe told a news conference the highly experienced umpiring team of himself, on-field referees Steve Bucknor and Aleem Dar and the third and fourth umpires Rudi Koertzen and Billy Bowden would take collective responsibility for the error.

"It's a human error," he said. "It was a mistake," said Crowe who indicated that Koertzen had first suggested the game could continue on Sunday.

COLLECTIVE MISTAKE

"Rudi was talking about the allowances and obviously he was talking about the possibility of tomorrow and we were all there and Steve Bucknor heard the same information and so did Aleem Dar," said Crowe.

"I don't think it was Rudi's mistake, I think it was a collective mistake. The fact that maybe Rudi might have suggested it early doesn't mean the other umpires couldn't have over-ruled him.

"The two on-the-field umpires are the ones that are actually controlling the match," said Crowe.

Jayawardene said he realised the match was over when his batsmen were offered the option of going off for bad light.

"The umpires said we had to play three overs," he told a news conference. "We were surprised, we found out later they had got it wrong," he said.

"Before I went out to the middle I did try to explain to the third umpire but they had already made up their minds," he added.

The Sri Lankan captain had said that he had taken his players off because, with the game effectively lost, he did not want them facing quick bowlers in very poor light.

"I didn't want to put my guys at risk and that was a call I made," he said.

Victorious Australia skipper Ponting said he thought Dar was kidding him when he interrupted the team's celebrations to tell him three overs would have to be played on Sunday.

"I actually thought he was having a bit of a joke with us to try and stop our celebrations or something. He said 'it looks like you'll have to come back tomorrow and play three overs'.

"I stopped and looked at him and said 'mate, we've played the 20 overs, we've finished the game'. It was a little bit disappointing way to end a World Cup," Ponting said.

International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive Malcolm Speed apologised Sunday for the "very sad way" the World Cup Final finished amidst farcical scenes in Bridgetown, Barbados, on Saturday.


Players and spectators at the Kensington Oval, not to mention millions of television viewere, were left baffled by the climax to Saturday's match which saw Australia celebrate victory twice and forced Sri Lanka to bat in pitch-black darkness on a ground without floodlights.

A team of officials, including on-field umpire Steve Bucknor, standing in a record fifth World Cup final, managed to overlook a standard playing condition.

This states that once 20 overs have been bowled in both innings enough cricket has been played to have a result declared under the Duckworth/Lewis system for rain-affected games.

Instead the teams, following instructions from Bucknor and Pakistan's Aleem Dar, the other on-field umpire, came back on to bowl three more overs in gathering gloom in a match Australia then won by 53 runs under the D/L system.

Speed, flanked by ICC general manager David Richardson who oversees the sport's elite officials, told a Kensington Oval news conference on Sunday: "David and I are here today on behalf of ICC to say to the wider stakeholders of the game that we too are very sorry this incident occurred at the end of what, on any view, had been an outstanding day of cricket.

"It was an unecessary error, a fundamental error, it was made under difficult circumstances at the end of the match.

"It was unfortunate, a very sad way to finish the World Cup. I hope we can recall the great day's cricket we had before this very unfortunate ending."

One consolation was that, with Australia well ahead, the incorrect ruling didn't affect the outcome.

Former South Africa wicketkeeper Richardson couldn't explain how a group including match referee Jeff Crowe and experienced third umpire Rudi Koertzen could make such a basic mistake.

"We've tried to come up with an explanation and we can't. We've spoken to them (the officials) and they are at a loss to try to explain.

"I can only say it's similar to the situation where you are sitting at home and the answer to a quiz question on TV looks very simple and you just lose your train of thought when you are in that heated, pressure situation.

"If you do get sidetracked by the pressure situation it only takes one guy to sow a seed of doubt in the other people's minds."

Crowe, a former New Zealand batsman, suggested on Saturday that South Africa's Koertzen had initiated the sequence of events that led to the final's bizarre conclusion and Richardson said: "I think that's quite correct."

He added: "What worries me, as the guy ultimately responsible for how match officials perform is that we get ourselves into a pressure situation and we are not able to cope with it.

"That's what it's about, whether you are playing or officiating.

"Everybody knows, you all know, certainly as players once we got to 20 overs (in the second innings), we all used to rub our hands and say 'tomorrow's off'. I'm sure you think the same way and the umpires do as well, funnily enough. It just went a bit cloudy."

Speed insisted no member of the five-man playing control team faced instant dismissal but Richardson said: "Malcolm has said we are not going to over-react but we are certainly going to take it very seriously and look at how it could have happened."