The world cup is known to be the most honored title for cricket. Every team across nations thirsts for a label of the world cup winning team in any format. World cup winning or losing also decides the fate of the captain. Several countries have lifted the cup once or even more than that. Still, few nations, including the powerful teams, have either never won a world cup or were within the ace of winning, namely South Africa and New Zealand. The emphasis will be on the South African team popularly known as "the chockers" causes behind not winning a single title in the world cup. South African cricket team has always been favorites because they possess players with stellar performances, such as AB de Villiers, Jacques Kallis, Dale Steyn, Jonty Rhodes, Albie Morkel, Faf du Plessis, Graeme Smith, Imran Tahir, and many more however they have never clinched a world cup title.

1. Rain Washing Away The Matches

The Rain god has often been harsh towards the South African side and shattered their fan's dreams of celebrating a world cup victory. To begin with, the year 1992's semifinal match between South Africa and England, where England won via the infamous rain rule, then comes to the 2003 group stage league match against Australia reopened their old wounds as the rain in distress had caused yet another gut-wrenching experience and the game got tied as per the Duckworth-Lewis Method. In 2019, another group stage match between South Africa and West Indies had no result as rain interrupted the game. However, the South African team had played for 7.3 overs by batting first, and the scoreboard looked like 29 runs with a fall of 2 wickets. Unfortunately, the 2022 t2o world cup match between South Africa and Zimbabwe has also been swept away due to rain.

2. Who Is The Captain?

South Africa is a solid contender to all the teams, but the most crucial thing they are lagging in is picking a captain who can lead from the front. A Captain's fate is their world cup result. They also have different captains for different formats, which certainly creates a disorder that makes them on the weaker side.

3. Bowling Combination

South Africa as a team has seen a downhill in their bowling capability. A lot is on the shoulders of Kagiso Rabada. The South African has to have good combinations of pacers and spinners to defend their target. Either only one or two bowlers are performing well and are economical, or in recent times they look like something is obstructing them from flourishing.

4. Injury Issues

South African reliable players had to endure injuries and were out of the world cup squad. Pacer Dale Steyn, known as the most splendid fast bowler, was ruled out from playing in the world cup 2019 due to a shoulder injury. He could have been the one to lead the bowling unit from the front utilizing his experience in the game.

5. Cannot Handle Pressure

South Africa arrives as this strong team at the beginning of the tournament. They perform well in the group stages against their opponents. Still, the problem lies with the pressure match like, a semifinal match. They tend not to handle the pressure, and the game slips away from their hand due to minor mistakes that appear to be major afterward. The 2015 world cup semifinal against New Zealand was a case of being unable to handle pressure. Three blunders took away the game from South Africa, missing a chance to get the batsman run out not once but twice and dropping a crucial catch.

6. Out Of Form Players

South Africa as a squad can either make it or break it. The most certain reason for a team not winning the world cup is players with bad form. Their prominent opening batsman Hashim Amla had to go through a phase of terrible shape and didn't perform well in the World Cup either. Players like AB de Villers and JP Duminy have also gone through an unfortunate form.

7. Swapping Batting Order

In the 2019 50 overs World cup held in England, the South African team was swapping batting orders. One day we could see Quinton de Kock opening the batting with Hashim Amla, and the other day with a different player like Aiden Markram, a middle-order batsman. The matches where the South African captain Faf du Plessis backed himself and came early at number 3 were the matches they had given phenomenal performances. They had defeated Australia in the game where the skipper scored a century, and 325 runs were on the board. Faf du Plessis was also the player of the match.

8. Middle-order Collapse

South Africa is missing all-rounders like Jacques Kallis, known for his all-rounding performance. In recent times the world cup t20 took place, and the shocker of the tournament was that teams like South Africa had to face defeat by the newbie team, the Netherlands. They did not put sufficient runs on the board. Their middle-order batsman, Aiden Markram, and David Miller couldn't put enough runs on the board.

9. Sparking Rumors Of Selection Under Race Quota

After the emotional exit of the South African team from the semifinals against New Zealand of the world cup 2015, rumors of selecting cricketers by the South African cricket board under race quota have been floating. However, the cricket board of South Africa ultimately denied the whispers, but a lot has been going on under the carpet.

10. Retirement Of Senior Players

It is heartbreaking for the fans of South Africa to see their favorite cricketers retire. The decline of the South Africa squad is also due to the retirement of several senior players. The team is never like before. The retirement has hampered their bowling and batting unit in multiple ways. The absence of Cricketers like AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn, and Jacques Kallis had left an enormous void.