JOHANNESBURG, March 6: South Africa’s World Cup campaign was officially buried via a newspaper cartoon on Thursday.

The picture, in the Afrikaans newspaper Beeld, depicted a grave with a batsman’s helmet perched on top.

The gravestone read: “Here lie the Proteas. In life they played badly and counted badly. Relieved from their long World Cup suffering on Monday March 3, 2003.”

South Africa had hoped to become the first hosts to lift a World Cup but under-performed badly to crash out of the competition in the first round.

Their final must-win game against Sri Lanka ended in a tie, captain Shaun Pollock conceding that the team had miscalculated how many runs were needed for victory in the rain-affected encounter in Durban.—Reuters