India’s hopes of successful a 3rd World Cup title and ending a 12-year drought for an ICC trophy got here to a tame finish final week as Australia defeated the Rohit Sharma-led facet by six wickets within the closing. India’s dominance all through the event, the place they received 10 video games on the trot, together with a 70-run win over New Zealand within the semi-final, got here to an finish within the closing, due to good bowling and fielding exploits from the Australians.

India’s highway to the World Cup closing was additionally overshadowed by a “pitch swapping” controversy after stories had claimed that ICC head curator had accused the BCCI for altering the monitor for the semi-final towards the Kiwis.

However, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has labelled the accusations as “pretty irrelevant”.

“The accusation of BCCI interference in the selection of the pitches for India matches again was pretty irrelevant, as the ICC pitch consultant was around, and only after the ICC gave its approval was the match played on the pitch,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.

Gavaskar added that the controversy was put to mattress within the semi-final itself when pacer Mohammed Shami bagged seven wickets on a pitch deemed useful for spinners.

“Nothing in the playing conditions say that for the knockout games, a fresh pitch had to be used, so just because India’s matches were played on previously used pitches didn’t mean there was any hanky-panky. That was proven conclusively in the semifinals, where the allegation of a dry pitch to suit the Indian spinners was made, but more than 725 runs were scored, and a fast bowler took seven wickets for India,” he added.