The ILL Fated Proteas Adveture in Cricket World Cup's

The World would never seem so bizarre without the mention of the Proteas heart-breaking exits in the World cups. It sometimes surpasses the imagination of the wildest and kinkiest dreamers of the world when not a single time but at more than couple of world cup occasions, their exit from the show-piece event has been dramatic.

Right after when the rainbow nation was freed from the apartheid, they played their first world cup in 1992 jointly hosted by austraila-nz.At the semi-final against England they were cruising at one stage, when the heavenly intervention cast a doom on their march towards the finals in form of rain. The much controversial Duckworth-lewis system made the scorecard look ridiculously bizarre as they needed 22 runs from 1 ball when the play restarted. They were ousted from the world cup with no fault of theirs and the look on every spectators and the players tells the whole story.It had never happened before on the history of cricket, but it only came for the proteas and sting them so hard that it stuck with them like a shadow of ghost ,which passed on to the other generation of the south African cricketers as well.The next world cup in 1999 England provided another heart-breaking exit for them and that also at the semi-finals.In the semi final against Australia,they did exceptionally well to restrict aussies at very ordinary total,and they started their chase quite well too.The real moment came in the match when they needed 9 runs of last over with a single wicket standing.Many would have thought the match would be over in either side defeat,but when 2 boundaries were scored of successive delieveries,the match was sealed in proteas favor.As if the ghost again awake just at the final push the match was ended in a tie thanks to the infamous mix-up between Kluesener and Allan Donald.The proteas knew they have again been devoid of their chance of laying down hand on the coveted trophy and made a sorry exit from the world cup.No one could believe their eyes when this happened.It shook the Proteas this time all the way from top to bottom.They were endowed a tag of “chokers”by the cricketing experts and media after that fiasco.

The next grievous moment was never far and it came just at the next world cup this time hosted by themselves in 2003.They were easily the favorites to win the world cup being a host.But the inauspicious made it first entry just at the opening match when they lost the match against a very less fancied windies team.But the real moment of shock came for them at a very important match against srilanka.This time rain came from nowhere to intervene and it was seemingly a winning position for proteas before the rain intervention.The duckworth-lewis once again played a havoc in their aspiration to become the first host nation to win world cup.When mark boucher hit a six of Muralitharan,they thought they have sealed the match and took no run in the last ball before the match was stopped.It also turn out to be their last ball in that world cup,as they were 1 run short of their stipulated target.The horrendous calculation mistake did them in.They made a disgraceful exit at their own backyard and the home crowd was stunned by all this.Proteas fully justified their chokers tag with this tag,and in the aftermath of this event Shaun Pollock was stripped of the capiancy too.But all these things couldn’t shed the fact that a ghost does loom over them at the world cups no matter what.

The time is ripe again for them as world cup 2011 is about to begin and Proteas are desperate to exorcise this ghost and dispel it out from them forever.But will this be a different world cup for them or will it also bring them the same cruel fate,only time will tell.Many players of that bitter memories are already retired or dropped,with Kallis,and then very young now the captain Graeme smith are the only 2 survivors from the past.So it is speculated and hoped that may be this could be the best time for them to come out from their shadows of past failures and write a different chapter in their cricketing history.Will the ghost take them over again or will they be able to dispel this ghost?this question looms large over them and it threatens their status as the one of the best cricketing nations of all time.They may have won so many series and conquered so many frontiers but this coveted trophy still eludes them and that really hurts them badly.

World cup 2011 could be theirs only if they take it just as a series and not go into the shell when the crunch time comes.All the best to South Africa team and hopefully this world cup will write a golden chapter in their cricketing book. It’s time for Africa.

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