With yet another season of the IPL coming to an end, it is time to take stock. Easily the cricket played in this edition of the competition has been the best of the five seasons. Chris Gayle continued to defy the law of all averages and towered over every other player in terms of his six-hitting ability and Sunil Narine continued to be the mystery spinner right through the competition. The Narine code hasn?t been cracked and this should give the West Indians much heart before the T-20 World Cup in Sri Lanka in September.

With Dwayne Smith having a reasonable tournament, playing a winning hand in two of the seven matches he played for the Mumbai Indians, and Kieron Pollard and Marlon Samuels doing their bit for Mumbai and Pune, West Indian cricket has emerged the strongest out of this IPL.

In fact, a full strength West Indies will perhaps start favourites in Sri Lanka come September. With Darren Sammy, Kemar Roach and Fidel Edwards joining the five mentioned above, West Indies will be the team to beat in the shortest format of the game.

Australia and South Africa aren?t lagging behind either. David Warner scored one of the best hundreds of the competition and is the only likely competition for Chris Gayle alongside Virender Sehwag. Mike Hussey continued to play a role for Chennai and Ben Hilfenhaus had a fabulous tournament, the mauling at the hands of Dwayne Smith at the Wankhede notwithstanding. He bowled the most number of dot balls and with Cameron White rediscovering form later on in the tournament, Australia looks solid as ever. The surprise package for the Australians, however, was Steve Smith. Standing tall amidst ruins for Pune, Smith was perhaps the fielder of the tournament. His acrobatic effort at the Eden Gardens when he just airlifted himself to try an improbable catch, complete it and then throw the ball back in knowing he was over the ropes, was just spectacular. And all of this was done when he was still airborne.

Giving Smith good competition was the South African Faf Du Plessis. Picking up Tendulkar at the Wankhede one handed in what was one of the catches of the tournament, he was extremely consistent at the top of the order for Chennai. With Steyn and Morkel both in good form and De Villiers emerging as one of the better finishers of the game, South Africa will believe they have a good chance of going the distance in Sri Lanka. Defending champions England and the mercurial Pakistanis also have very good T-20 sides, making the forthcoming World Cup one of the most open tournaments ever.

Finally, to our very own team: as I have written before, the bane of the Indian T-20 team is inconsistency. Except Gautam Gambhir and to an extent Virender Sehwag, none of the other players have been consistent. Mahendra Singh Dhoni sparkled in the playoff against Mumbai but in the overall context has had a below par tournament. Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have all been inconsistent right through the completion. While there is no doubting their potential, we need someone to be as consistent as Yuvraj Singh was in the inaugural T-20 World Cup in 2007 to go the distance.

In bowling, too, Ravi Ashwin isn?t having the same impact and Pragyan Ojha had to be benched in the final stretch of the tournament. Harbhajan Singh was bowling well in bursts but it was worrying to see him not complete his four-over quota in a number of games. Zaheer, Vinay Kumar, Praveen Kumar have all bowled below their best and have not had equal impact in comparison to a Morkel or a Hilfenhaus. Rather, Umesh Yadav with his extra pace has often rattled the batsmen and if he is able to exercise a bit more control he can be India?s spearhead in Sri Lanka.

In the ultimate analysis, however, the tournament will also be remembered for the off-field happenings, events that have dealt a blow to its credibility. It is now upon the IPL governing council and the BCCI to act with urgency and ensure that the focus continues to be on cricket before the next season unfolds. Some tough measures are in order and the governing council needs to be more proactive than ever before to protect the brand, which is likely to lose sheen if it isn?t protected strongly.

The writer is a sport historian