Heartiest congratulations to India who on Saturday won the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s Twenty20 World Cup, their first major title since the 2013 Champions Trophy.

The thrilling seven-run victory over South Africa in Barbados ended more than a decade of heartbreaks in knockout matches of ICC tournaments, and news yesterday that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has awarded the team nearly US$15 million as a reward for their “talent, determination, and sportsmanship” is an indication of just how much this victory means to that country.

According to an Agence France Presse report, Mr Jay Shah, secretary of the BCCI, announced that the hefty reward will be shared between around 25 people — the entire team including coaches and support staff.

That cash prize is in addition to US$2.45 million along with bonuses from the ICC record prize pool of US$11.25 million for the tournament.

South Africa will share US$1.28 million for finishing as the runner-up.

Overall, the tournament will most likely go down as a milestone for a sport keen to expand its global footprint. It is obvious that the ICC’s decision to increase the number of teams to 20 and to play part of the group stage in the United States — where cricket is foreign to the majority of the population — was a deliberate strategy to expand the sport’s popularity.

We are also told that, additionally, the ICC wanted to engage directly with the South Asian immigrant communities which make up the active core of cricket lovers in the USA and offer them a rare chance to see the international game in person.

We can’t fault them for that, and including more teams from emerging cricket nations can only redound to the game’s development.

Generally, the tournament was affected by weather extremes — both rain and heat — that had an adverse impact on the preparation of pitches. Far too many pitches — most notably the strips in New York, which were developed in Florida and ‘dropped in’ shortly before the tournament — turned out to be unpredictable in pace and bounce which made life difficult for batsmen and led to low-scoring games.

Easily, the pitch at the Daren Sammy Stadium in St Lucia was the best — fair to both batsmen and bowlers. However it has to be said that some of the low-scoring games turned out to be tense thrillers.

Among the biggest stories of the tournament was the performance of Afghanistan, who reached the semi-final after upsetting one of the pre-tournament favourites Australia.

Cricket, which only became popular in Afghanistan in this century, has blossomed beyond belief in spite of the social and political problems and turmoil which have haunted that country.

People who follow cricket will recall that over the years, Afghanistan have beaten England, Pakistan, West Indies, and Sri Lanka. The upshot is that some of their players are becoming big names within T20 franchise leagues around the world.

As it now stands, cricket represents a rare bright spot for many Afghans and has been embraced by the Taliban Government whose acting foreign minister Mr Amir Khan Muttaqi called the cricket team captain Mr Rashid Khan to offer congratulations after the Afghans advanced to the semi-finals.

Another positive of the tournament was the United States getting to the Super Eight phase. That no doubt sets the tone for North America to become the new frontier as cricket, particularly the T20 format, continues to surge in global appeal.

Despite the issues, we believe the tournament was a qualified success.

Kudos to the ICC, the host nations and all who contributed.