September 27 Friday 2002
SL press express shock, anger and disbelief at SA loss

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan capital woke on Thursday morning to an atmosphere of "shock, disbelief and anger'' in the wake of South Africa's humiliating capitulation to India in ICC Champions Trophy semifinal on Wednesday night.

Despite the widespread popularity of India's 10-run victory, the questions surrounding South Africa's seemingly feeble slide from complete domination to subservience overshadowed joy of Saurav Ganguly's team. "Never trust the South Africans to win a crunch game," leading Sri Lankan cricket writer Sa'adi Thawfeeq wrote in newspaper. "Yesterday at Premadhasa Stadium they lived up to their reputation as chokers on the big occasion..." Thawfeeq was unapologetic on Thursday morning. "It was a disgrace," he said. "The irony, of course, is that if Pakistan or another Asian team had lost like that, everybody would have shouted 'match-fixing' and it would have been hard to argue. What the hell happened? What were they thinking," Thawfeeq demanded of South African journalists. 

Many leading Indian cricket writers were similarly shocked, even angry, at what they saw as a lack of urgency in South Africa's approach when the game was virtually won with the scoreboard reading 192-1 in the 37th over chasing a target of 262. "Kallis and Klusener looked like they didn't give a damn - what the hell was going on?" demanded the editor of India's largest selling weekly, Sports Star. "I have never seen anything like that before." If anger existed beyond second floor of Taj Samudrah hotel where Shaun Pollock's team were billeted, it was positively simmering amongst the team. 

Several copies of newspaper, which is delivered overnight to each room, had been attacked and conversation was virtually non-existant. "It's not very pleasant up there," said one squad member. "It's not a very happy place at all." Fortunately for all concerned, team manager Goolam Raja was able to book seats on an earlier than scheduled flight and the squad will now depart Colombo at midnight on Thursday rather than Monday evening, as had been planned earlier.