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'SA can't get away from chokers tag' - Graeme Smith

Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith has admitted that players from his country find it "irritating" to be constantly questioned about the tag of "chokers" leading into a major ICC tournament

Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith has admitted that players from his country find it "irritating" to be constantly questioned about the tag of "chokers" leading into a major ICC tournament. Smith, who led South Africa at the previous two World Cups, in 2011 & 2007, was speaking on CONTENDERS, an ESPNcricinfo special programme ahead of the upcoming World Cup. His co-panelist on the show, former India captain Rahul Dravid was of the view that calling South Africa "chokers" is misplaced since they "just haven't played well" in those games rather than allowing winning positions to slip away.
South Africa have carried the burden of the tag since the memorable semi-final of the 1999 World Cup that ended in a tie against Australia in Brimingham, allowing Australia to sneak into the final. In 2003, South Africa famously misread the Duckworth-Lewis equation in a rain-affected game and failed to make the knockout stages. Smith's team was beaten handily by Australia in the semi-finals in 2007 and failed to chase down a modest total against New Zealand in the quarter-final in Dhaka in 2011.
"I just think we haven't played well in the knockout stages for whatever reason," Smith said. "We've either been beaten by a better team, haven't had the conditions right or have just let ourselves down. So I think it's a build-up of various things and unfortunately it's something they'll never get rid of until we go on and win a tournament. We made some stupid mistakes."
In a recent interview with ESPNcricinfo, former South Africa allrounder Jacques Kallis said the tag was "a bit of joke" within the dressing room. Smith believes the players should "front up" to the question because the players "can't get away with it" as soon as the build-up to a World Cup gets underway.
"I think it's always been a light-hearted thing, but as an individual when you get to the knockout stage, the amount of times you get asked that question, the amount of times you read it, the amount of times people say it to you, whether it becomes an internal pressure… I don't know," Smith said. "It's something each individual player can own up to, it gets thrown down the South African team's throats in this tournament so often that you can't get away from it. It's about fronting up, it's about dealing with it, its about saying, "Look we haven't won a tournament yet, we haven't won a knockout game yet but it's about facing up and winning."
South Africa have been in impressive form in all forms of the game in recent months and will be led by AB de Villiers, who has enjoyed an extended purple patch himself of late. Smith believes the personnel South Africa have in their squad give them a great opportunity to finally get over the line. "For us, when I look at this year, I feel like it's a good opportunity for many reasons - we have match-winners with both bat and ball, more than we've ever had in the top five. I think we've got a great top five. A lot of guys who can win with the bat. The key changes we have in this line up is that we've got attacking bowling, the one that can take wickets and we have an attacking spinner which is a big thing for a South African team.
"I think the challenges are going to be the allrounders and the middle order but I think outside that, conditions is huge for us. If you look at it, 90% of conditions played in sub-continental conditions and I think the challenge for us is, we've got an opportunity in Australia and New Zealand, conditions we've done well in, in the last two to three years and I think with the team we've got a good chance."
Dravid also agreed with Smith's assessment of South Africa's strengths going into the tournament. "South Africa haven't performed to their potential so if you come up against them in a knockout game, you will have the history that they're going to be feeling the pressure because they're constantly being asked about this," he said. "And until they win one, they're always going to be asked because they've had some phenomenal signs over the last few years, and you'd think they'd have won a World Cup.
"When I look at some of the numbers of South Africa of the World Cups of the games they've lost in the knockouts, I don't think that they've really choked. I think you choke when you find yourself in a winning position and let it slip. Other than '99 with Lance Klusener, they had a winning position that they found themselves in, none of the other World Cups they were actually in a winning position. They just didn't play well, they didn't play up to their potential and that can happen, but as Graeme said, this is a good opportunity."