The Australian party has just begun

Australians players huddled together and erupted in joy after reclaiming their third World Cup title, second in succession, beating India by 125 runs in the final yesterday.

For most of them, it was their “biggest moment” and all relished the victory after a hard-fought tournament.

“It means just about everything,” said Symonds, who was in doubt about his international future before being selected for the World Cup. But he stamped his authority in the mega event rescuing Australia from hopeless situations more than once.

“A tear rolling down your cheek means anything to you? I was in tears out there when we won,” he said.

It was the biggest moment for the burly all-rounder whose unbeaten 142 against Pakistan and 91 against Sri Lanka in the semi-final saved his side from the blushes.

“I’m just so happy – you’re out in the paddock and that last catch was taken and we were all grabbing each other,” he said.

“You look around that huddle and see people’s faces.

“I have never been to war but it was like we were in the trenches together and we won like the Anzacs had won, it was really special … Squeezing the 15 blokes as hard as I could when that last catch was taken.”

McGrath might have been pushed to the background by Lee in the early part of the competition, but he did his job perfectly yesterday.

The lanky fast bowler could not have asked for anything better as he scalped the prize wicket of Sachin Tendulkar in the very first over of the Indian innings.

“He’s (Tendulkar) definitely a big key wicket in their line-up and to knock him over in the first over I was pretty happy with, yeah,” said McGrath.

“They’ve still got some very good batsmen but chasing 360, and they’d just lost one of the best batsmen in the world, it just made their task a lot harder.”

For Bichel, who made his mark in the competition with fine all-round displays – averaging 12.31 with the ball and 117 with the bat, it was a moment to remember the soldiers helping the US force in the Iraq war.

“No doubt I enjoyed the World Cup. It’s something I really wanted to play in and I enjoyed every moment if it, from all the games to things outside of that.

“It’s all a bit of a blur at the moment, obviously, to win a World Cup, but with everything happening back home with the war and stuff happening, it’s a little too much.

“It’s nice to be out there enjoying yourself playing cricket, it’s something that we love to do, but with things going on and guys going away to war, I really feel for them.

Lee, who captured two wickets in the final including that of Indian captain Saurav Ganguly, moved to the second spot in the leading wicket-takers list with 21 wickets, just one behind Sri Lanka’s Chaminda Vaas.

An elated Lee rated the Cup glory as the best moment in his life.

“It’s definitely up there as the most brilliant thing that’s ever happened to me as a cricketer and an athlete,” said the tearaway fast bowler.

“The way that the guys all hugged each other … It just meant so much to us, we’ve just worked so hard for it.”

Lee, who does not fnd it difficult to hit the target with deadly yorkers at 160 kmph was at a loss of words to describe the mood in the camp.

“Words can’t explain how we felt at that exact time, so it was a pretty terrific moment.”

It was an irony that Lehmann, who had hit the winning runs in the World Cup final four years ago against Pakistan at Lord’s, took Zaheer Khan’s catch that brought an emphatic win for Australia.

The left-handed batsman immediately pocketed the ball intending to cherish the memories for a long time.

“I’ll keep that,” he said.