Even in the fever of victory, West Indies captain Brian Lara was having none of it.

Beating England in Saturday's dramatic Champions Trophy final, thereby clinching his side's first major international one-day trophy for a quarter of a century, made him burst with pride.

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Yet any suggestion of a significant West Indian cricketing revival following years of stagnation was dismissed as scornfully as a leg-stump half-volley.

"What happened today was really phenomenal but it's not the be-all and end-all," he said after the two-wicket win, sealed with seven balls to spare despite a Marcus Trescothick century.

"It's not the World Cup.

"In 1975 we established ourselves as a great Test and one-day team. I'm not going that far but it's a beginning, a foundation. It serves as something we can work with."

Lara, of course, is right.

His side, as beaten captain Michael Vaughan had warned before The Oval final, are a dangerous one-day batting side full of attacking strokeplayers. When they bowl and field as neatly as they did on Saturday, they are a threat.

However, they have just been walloped by England in seven Tests out of eight and hardly belong in the same Calypso bracket of such men as Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards and Michael Holding who helped lift the 1975 and 1979 World Cups.

It may also be too early to forecast an Australian decline after the world champions's failure, yet again, to win this tournament.

Leg spinner Shane Warne's one-day retirement has undoubtedly left a void, while the metronomic Glenn McGrath is slowing down, with no obvious replacements queuing up behind him.

SUSTAINED PERIOD

The world champions contrived to lose by six wickets to England, thus bowing out in the semi-finals just as they did in 2002.

Yet it was only a year ago they had thrashed all comers to retain the World Cup in South Africa.

Like Lara, Australia captain Ricky Ponting refused to read too much into a single reverse or, as Australia coach John Buchanan termed it, a "snapshot in time".

More evidence will be needed, just as England will have to excel over a sustained period before being considered serious players in the one-day game.

Winning 10 out of 11 Tests this year, inspired by the emergence of strike bowler Steve Harmison in particular, has impressed everybody.

Beating Australia for the first time in 15 one-dayers, courtesy of Vaughan's career-best 86, will boost confidence but may yet prove to be more blip than trend.

The 2004 Champions Trophy, indeed, offered little to chew over for long.

The 12-team event, played for the most part in chilly, damp conditions, served up few memorable games to make up for the loss of such world-class talents as Warne or the injured Muttiah Muralitharan and Sachin Tendulkar.

The Asian powers failed to provide their customary colour -- only Pakistan reached the final four before capitulating horribly to West Indies -- while the rank outsiders of Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Kenya and the United States failed to compete.

South Africa, regarded as Australia's only true rivals a year ago, continued their slide down the world rankings after losing to the eventual winners, despite a Herschelle Gibbs century. They are now eighth in the 11-team table.

In the end, the whole jamboree failed to draw the crowds as the British sporting public gravitated instead towards the start of the soccer season and to their television sets to watch golf's Ryder Cup.