That being said, this World Cup wasn’t without controversies. Some would even say that with social media at its peak, this World Cup had more controversies than its predecessors. 

1. Sanjay Manjrekar and Ravindra Jadeja got into an ugly spat after the former expressed his dislike for ‘bits and pieces’ players like the latter. 

In an interview, Sanjay Manjrekar said that India should look to play a proper batsman or a bowler instead of a ‘bits and pieces’ player like Jadeja. To which the all-rounder responded on Twitter and asked Manjrekar to stop his ‘verbal diarrhoea‘.

2. Rohit Sharma was dismissed caught behind after the third umpire ignored the soft signal by the on-field umpires despite inconclusive evidence. 

During India’s match against West Indies, a Kemar Roach delivery swung back in and it appeared that the Indian opener had nicked it. But the on-field umpire did not think so. 

The decision then went to the third umpire, who gave Sharma out despite inconclusive evidence to overturn the decision of the on-field umpire. What was worse was that the third umpire Michael Gough took only two replays to give his decision. 

The Indian opener late tweeted about the same!

3. During the final, with 9 to win from three, a throw from the deep deflected by Stokes’ bat went to the boundary and made the target considerably easy for the English. 

With the World Cup hanging in balance, Ben Stokes hit one to square leg for two but a throw from the deep deflected from his bat and went to the boundary for 4, effectively giving England 6 runs. The target then became an easy 3 to win from 2 balls. 

But given that the batsman had not completed the second run when Martin Guptill threw the ball, England should have been awarded 5 runs, not 6 and Adil Rashid, not Ben Stokes should have been on strike to face the next ball. 

4. After the final ended in no result, with a tied game and a tied super over, the ICC rules dictated that the match be awarded to England as they had hit more boundaries during their innings. 

Last night’s final ended with the scores being level after 8 hours of gruelling cricket. Then the super over, which was supposed to decide the winner of the game also ended in a tie. 

England was declared the winner on the virtue of hitting more boundaries in their innings and in the super over. 

5. Again during the final, three bad decisions were given by the umpires during the New Zealand innings. 

While two of these decisions were overturned with the help of DRS, the third one went against the Kiwis and Ross Taylor. But by then New Zealand had run out of reviews and Taylor had to walk, leaving the team in a spot of bother. 

6. The timing of the World Cup in England came under a lot of scrutiny after crucial matches in the group stages were washed out due to rain. And a lot of games were also otherwise affected by the bad weather in England. 

Everyone knew that it rains during this time of the English summer. So why didn’t the ICC schedule the World Cup accordingly? This World Cup had more washed out games that the rest of the World Cups in history, combined. 

Also, if you noticed, unlike the rest of the world, when it rained the groundsmen would only cover the pitch and the area surrounding it, leaving the ground to soak the rain, making playing conditions tough. 

7. After Ambati Rayudu announced his retirement, questions were raised about why he wasn’t called in after two Indian players were injured despite being named as a reserve player. 

Ambati Rayudu had not been included in the 15-member ODI squad that went to England for the World Cup. However, he had been named as a reserve in the case of an unfortunate injury. 

And there were a couple of unfortunate injuries. But instead of Rayudu, the team management got Rishabh Pant and Mayank Agarwal to join them in England. Following which Ambati Rayudu announced his retirement. 

8. Due to a graphic error by the broadcaster, MS Dhoni’s runout in the Semifinal caused a lot of unrest among Indian fans. The graphic showed that there were 6 fielders outside the 30-yard circle during 41-50 overs, causing a lot of confusion. 

India lost of New Zealand in the semi-final by a whisker. The match could have been different had MS Dhoni had not been run out. 

However, the graphics for the fielding positions appeared on screen at the time and people noticed that there were 6 players outside the 30-yard circle, and started blaming the umpires for a bad decision. 

However, it turned out that it was a mistake by the broadcaster and only 5 fielders were outside the circle, as rule dictates. 

Now, this World Cup might have had some really bad controversies surrounding it but that final makes you want to forget them all. Overall, I would say, that this was one of the best World Cups, cricket has ever had.