Aug 02 2009
The unluckiest team in the world
Being a fan of the South African cricket team is without doubt the most frustrating job in the world. After all, you always take pride in your team being one of the most professional one to play the sport and start almost every tournament as one of the favourites. Even then the South African Cricket Board’s cupboard lays thread bare with nothing of note to show for.
It is nearly eighteen years up since the Proteas won back the right to play cricket, host international teams and travel on tours abroad. Apartheid had kept them away for quite a bit of time but the way they started, it almost seemed as they would make up for it without passing too much time.
It happened first in the 1992 World Cup. Under Kepler Wessels, South Africa were largely an unknown and unpredictable commodity at that time. But they were not disappointing in the preliminary round when all teams had to play against each other. They ended third in the league with five victories from eight games, although before the tournament they had won only one of their three introductory limited-overs matches in India, some three months before.
Here, under coach Mike Procter, one of the world’s greatest cricketers at the time of South Africa’s expulsion, and spearheaded by the speedy Allan Donald, they coolly beat Australia by nine wickets at Sydney. They lost to New Zealand and Sri Lanka but beat the West Indies at Christchurch followed by a win over Pakistan and another over India in a rain curtailed match which guaranteed their passage to the semi finals.
In between all this, the players shone with some brilliant performances. Peter Kirsten, who was left out of the original tour squad, averaged 68.33 in the preliminary matches. Jonty Rhodes attracted notice by his electrifying fielding, immortalized himself with an airborne demolition of the stumps to run out Inzamam-ul-Haq. All of them were gathering steam at the right time and in the knock out stages, you never know which team might outperform the other. In the end, their campaign was cruelly ended by the sudden heavy shower which fell on the SCG, transforming a requirement of 22 off 13 balls to a mocking 21 off one. It was such a ridiculous rule that the moment in question is still a butt of many cricketing jokes round the world.
After the 1992 tournament, the South African team grew from strength to strength. Hansie Cronje was the captain, had the likes of Gary Kirsten, Darryl Cullinan and Jonty Rhodes in the middle with Allan Donald leading the bowling attack. Four years hence they arrived in the Indian sub-continent perched again as one of the pre-tournament favourites.
Placed in group B, they won all their matches handsomely, with none of the teams coming even remotely close to troubling them. But they ran into the West Indies in the quarterfinals and in fact it was one man Brian Lara who was their downfall, not the remaining ten. His century cost them a place in the semis, as they faced a relatively early flight home.
1999 saw them gain even more strength. There was Herschelle Gibbs at the top of the order now, Mark Boucher in the middle and Lance Klusener after that, all in the same explosive mould making the team an even bigger threat. What’s more, their biggest rivals Australia were rebuilding as Steve Waugh was newly appointed captain and had endured a tough series in the Caribbean.
The group stage again went as per the script for they topped the charts with four wins out of five. More than that, they lost to a maverick Zimbabwe side – punching much above its weight through out the tournament – and so many thought that the worst was now behind them, as they had had their share of bad luck in this one world cup. It seemed so too for in the Super Six stage, they won their first two matches and were in complete control going into the last game against Australia. Beating them would mean an easier semi final, plus their biggest rivals the Aussies going out as well.
As it turned out, that match became famous for two things. Steve Waugh’s brilliant fight back and Herschelle Gibbs dropping the world cup, oops no, a catch! It is probably the most famous dropped chance in the history of the sport as Australia were able to fight back and advance to the semis, setting up a clash with the Proteas again.
Waugh had been calling on his team to show their wares and become champions after the disappointment in 1996. And their determination showed as did the nerves of the South Africans. Lance Klusener who had been flawless throughout the length of the 1999 World Cup now botched up a run and the match was a tie. Australia progressed on the basis of their win in the Super Six. Televisions beamed the image of Cronje standing muted in the dressing room at Edgbaston. Some say you can still see his ghost at that ground!
The following couple of years were not that great for cricket in South Africa as the year 2001 brought out a lot of ghosts from their closet, most notably the ban on Hansie Cronje for allegations of match fixing. Nicky Boje and Gibbs were affected too and while these names were spent off the field, Donald and Jonty Rhodes bid adieu as the 2003 World Cup approached. This time to be held in South Africa, it was no different in the sense that they were once again billed as pre-tournament favourites.
It was no different in that sense as well that their luck refused to change even when faced with home support. They lost to West Indies and New Zealand but it was the tied match against Sri Lanka that hurt them the most. Rain intervened in the match bringing in mess-making Duckworth-Lewis into play. South Africa were level on runs required and Mark Boucher decided to play the last ball of the game for a dot. Nobody in the middle or in the dressing room had bothered to check what the par score was. Shaun Pollock bore the brunt of this foolishness and was soon expended with, as this time it wasn’t as much with the luck but with being prepared. South Africa had fallen short in the first round itself and their world cup curse was no firmly in place.
Under new skipper Graeme Smith, the Proteas took a long time to rebuild. 2004 was an especially poor year for them as they could only beat the West Indies in ODI cricket and being honest, they are not the toughest teams to beat. However, they are too good a team to keep down for long and in 2006, they chased down 434 in an ODI against Australia in Johannesburg to signal to the world that they were once again on the upswing.
Prior to the 2007 World Cup, they regularly challenged the Aussies for the world number one ranking and even overthrew them on a couple of occasions. It seemed the stage was set for a royal battle and this time there would be a different result to the South African challenge. But they managed to mess up this one time as well. Losing to Australia in the group stages, they lost to New Zealand in the Super Eights and then went down to Bangladesh as well. What this meant was that they would once again face Australia in the semi finals who were gunning for their third consecutive crown. And in the last ODI World Cup South Africa were bowled out for just 149 in the semi finals to complete their poor run, yet again.
And this world cup hoodoo has extended to the T20 World Cup as well. That very same year in 2007, in the inaugural tournament, they were well placed to make it to the semi-finals on the back of some strong form. In fact they were the unbeaten team of the tournament till the time they met a rampant Indian team. Chasing 154, they needed 130 odd runs to qualify for the semi finals on terms of run rate as the Indians turned on the heat. But put South Africa under pressure in any world cup and they will crumble came true once again as they managed to not only lose but failed to get to the threshold of qualifying for the next round.
It was no different for them in the 2009 T20 World Cup in England. They were clearly the best team, winning every game in the group stages and then the Super Eights as well, only to go down to Pakistan in the semi finals. Or should one say Shahid Afridi! Whatever be the verdict, it is but a fact that South Africa are the best cricket team ever not to win a world cup.
Their story is much the same in the Champions Trophy as well. In 2002, they went down to India in the semi finals when chasing 260-odd, they were well guided by a century from Gibbs. But Gibbs retired with dehydration and then the Indian spinners turned on the screws. In 2004, their match against West Indies was hit by rain and when play continued the next day, the Windies chased down 250 with ease. In 2006, Windies again played their nemesis in India this time, as they stopped their run once again in the semis, this time chasing 262 with ease.
The only success on the world stage to come South Africa’s way has been the Knock-Out Trophy in 1998, where they were superb winners in Bangladesh. Two years later they reached the semi finals again, so this was a much consistent performance on the better side for the Proteas. And lest we forget they also have the only ever CommonWealth Games cricket gold medal to their name, which came in 1998.
The underlying point is this: should their fans over the world be satisfied with just one major win and a sorry excuse for a gold medal in almost two decades of their return to cricket? When are some of the best cricketers in the world going to stand up, make themselves be counted and make sure that poor excuses such as bad luck, carelessness and one-off wins for lowly placed teams do not get in their way of much-deserved glory?
When is South Africa going to break their hoodoo at a World Cup?
