TonyBeccaCRICKET'S WORLD Cup enters its Super Six round tomorrow and in contrast to the buzz of excitement on the eve of the tournament's opening match some three weeks ago, the atmosphere around South Africa is like that of a country in mourning.
The reason for the depressing mood of the people is not that after all their expectations, after all their dreams, South Africa, their pride and joy, are out and therefore no longer in contention. It is that the West Indies, Pakistan and England are also out.
As far as the fans are concerned, although Australia, India, Sri Lanka and New Zealand are still around and there could be a brilliant finish, the second round the round that was supposed to be an action-packed quality shootout between the best will be disappointing.
Instead of matches like Australia versus the West Indies, India against England, Pakistan versus the West Indies and England against Sri Lanka, with the likes of Kenya and Zimbabwe in the mix, it will be matches like Kenya versus India, Zimbabwe against Kenya and Australia versus Kenya.
In other words, after eagerly waiting to see the best versus the best in cricket's showpiece, the fans are now left to watch, most of the time, either the strong versus the weak or the weak against the weak; and as far as individuals are concerned, instead of watching batsmen like Brian Lara, Herschelle Gibbs and Saeed Anwar, they will have to settle for the likes of Kennedy Otieno, Steve Tikolo and Maurice Odumbe.
What is interesting, however, is that many of the disappointed and disgruntled fans believe that what happened did not have to happen, that one or two of the fancied teams suffered because of rain or the dreaded Duckworth-Lewis system, and as far as they are concerned, what happened was the result of the organisers not reserving a day for the replay of rain-affected matches.
The truth, however, is that although Kenya and Zimbabwe were fortunate to pocket four points without playing for them, although it is unlikely they would have made it without those points, and although the Duckworth-Lewis system did play a hand in a few matches, the four big teams who failed to make it have only themselves to blame.
England, for example, failed by two points to edge out Zimbabwe in Group A, and chances are had they played the match against Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe they would have won it, collected four points and they would not have ended up in a position where they had to depend on Pakistan to defeat Zimbabwe.
Was it poetic justice? Whatever it was, unfortunately for them, rain ruined the Pakistan/Zimbabwe match and England were out and Zimbabwe were in.
Although Pakistan had a chance to qualify if the rain had stayed away when they played Zimbabwe, after losing to Australia, England and India and only defeating Holland and Namibia they did not play well enough to move on.
And the same was true of South Africa and the West Indies in Group B.
South Africa, it must be remembered, lost to the West Indies and New Zealand, and although South Africans believe that it was the Duckworth-Lewis system that nailed them in the rain-affected match against Sri Lanka, they were in a tight spot when the rain came.
They were 40 runs away from victory with only five overs to go and that could have been difficult.
Based on the final net run-rate, two more points would have helped the West Indies, and but for the rain Benoni they certainly would have won the match against Bangladesh.
After defeating South Africa in the opening match, however, the West Indies lost to New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
One victory would have been enough, and after limiting New Zealand to 241 for seven and Sri Lanka to 228 for six, they should have won both matches.
With South Africa, the West Indies, England and Pakistan out of it, with Zimbabwe and Kenya in it, the Super Six, the round that promised such close and exciting contests, such brilliant cricket, will be far from super.
Australia and India are in it, however, and because of that, the final could be a thrilling affair.
