I heard a rumour the cricket World Cup was finally over. Apparently, we won. I’m pretty sure it’s right – after all I did see pictures of the Aussie cricketers running around in their undies celebrating their win, but with the way the World Cup played out, you can never be too sure.

Not only did it seem to be the longest tournament in the history of the world – even the Olympics, which the entire world participates in, wraps up in under two weeks – it also seemed to be the most mistakeriddled.

And the murder of Bob Woolmer – a tragic event, but one which feels like it happened eons ago – was the one thing everyone was talking about, as if the cricketing activity on the pitch was happening in the background.

When the tournament finally looked like ending, authorities decided to make the teams play the last three overs in virtual darkness – so the Aussies twice got to celebrate winning.

It has since been admitted the veteran officials made a boo-boo and should have just wrapped it up the first time the Aussies started jumping around and hugging each other.

Now International Cricket Council officials are considering cutting a week of the 2011 cup. They think that might help keep people interested longer. No kidding.

Seriously, Ben Cousins not only had time to smugly lie to the media about his drug addiction, he also flew to America, went to rehab for 28 days and made it home, all before the World Cup wound up. More on him later, by the way.

It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the ICC turned around and decided that the final needed to be replayed, because they didn’t officially record the score, or something else just as ridiculous.

Now I’m not saying that I could organise a multination sporting tournament without a few hiccups, but then again that’s not my job. And you would think that if that’s your job, you would do it and do it well.

And it’s not as if they have to stage a World Cup every year – they have a long time to prepare for this thing. Maybe they just need to put Warnie on the committee – he certainly has experience in saying sorry, passing the blame buck and still coming up smelling like roses, albeit slightly sweaty ones.

On the topic of passing the buck, Ben Cousins is yet to make his statement and – surprise, surprise – the AFL is yet to act. As a Pies fan, I am loathe to agree with Leigh Matthews, but he’s right when he says that Cousins needs to be severely punished – not for his addiction, but for the whole way he has handled the debacle.

And the AFL hierarchy needs to go through some rehab itself, for the appalling way it has handled the whole appalling affair. It failed to act when he ran from the booze bus and it has failed to act now he has disgraced his team and himself, and disappointed his fans.

Apologising in a PR exercise is not fixing the problem. Actually addressing the issue, not just with Cousins but with the whole league might be a better place to start.