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| March 5, 2003 | Wednesday | Muharram 1, 1424 |
Heartbroken Proteas awake to broken dream
JOHANNESBURG, March 4: South Africa woke up to one dominant sporting image on Tuesday — the incredulous, crushed face of skipper Shaun Pollock.
Pollock appeared on the front of all of the country’s newspapers after his team’s cruel first-round exit from the tournament.
The Star displayed three pictures of Pollock under the banner headline “Heartbreaking”. In the first, he stared out blankly at the Durban rain which was to kill off both the day-night game and his side’s hopes.
The next photograph had him with his head in his hands and the third looking away to the side, as if for help.
“Shock. Horror. Despair,” said the three captions.
“Polly devastated by another tied exit,” ran the Citizen’s banner headline after the hosts were knocked out of their second World Cup in a row after tying their final match.
Mark Boucher had been told by his dressing room that 229 was enough for victory and, after hitting a six off Muttiah Muralitharan to get to that score, had blocked what was to prove the final ball of the game when one more run would have ensured victory.
The Citizen called it a “terrible breakdown in communication”.
The Star’s main sports headline blamed cricket’s “Weather gods”.
“It seemed as if vice-captain Mark Boucher, who was batting with Lance Klusener, was given the wrong message when light drizzle started falling,” it said.
The disappointment echoed not only the 1999 tournament, when the team was knocked out of the semi-finals after a tied match against Australia, but also 1992, when rain had also left them cruelly short during a run chase, again in the semifinals, against England.
“Last night the nightmares of 1992 and also the 1999 World Cup returned to haunt them and it will remain with them for many years to come,” said The Star.
South Africa had hoped to become the first host nation to lift the trophy. Had they won on Monday, they would not only have qualified but also taken 10 points with them, leaving them in good position to reach the semifinals.
Their failure to reach the second round represented their worst result in the tournament.
Pollock’s picture even made it to the front of the Business Day newspaper, even if he couldn’t quite push an article on telecom share prices out of prime spot.
“Dumped by Duckworth-Lewis”, the back page headline said, referring to the complex scoring system used to revise victory targets in rain-affected matches.
South African television, meanwhile, replaying cricket highlights of Monday’s matches on Tuesday morning, ran a string of email messages from fans at the bottom of the screen.
All appeared supportive of the team, but less so of the Duckworth-Lewis scoring equation.
Meanwhile, New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming was delighted his team reached the Super Six, but said he could not help feeling sorry for South Africa.
Fleming and his team mates watched the game on television after beating Canada in their final fixture earlier in the day.
“It was incredibly hard. I guess you don’t like to see a situation like that for another team,” Fleming said.—Reuters
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