South Africa players and officials feel as if Alfred has stabbed the country in the back

The entire South African camp was fuming after a one of their media consultants branded the national team as losers and chokers.

Luke Alfred’s The Art Of Losing (Why the Proteas choke at cricket’s World Cup) takes a look at South Africa’s dismal performances during both 50-over and 20-over World Cups.

South Africa cricketing officials are infuriated at the provocative title and have tried dismissing Alfred, but under the country’s labour laws, they are unable to do so since he is still under contract.

Many of South Africa’s leading players voiced their outrage towards Alfred, stating that he had stabbed the team in the back by writing this book while working for Cricket South Africa at the same time.

South Africa team manager Mohammed Moosajee was quoted by News.com.au as saying: “As far as the title is concerned it is unfortunate and misleading.”

Moosajee also noted that the chokers tag, which has been bestowed upon the South African team after their failure in the 2011 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup, is uncalled for and entirely unfit for a nation who are currently at the top of the Test team rankings.

“You cannot get away from the fact that until you win a major ICC trophy it will be in the media,” Moosajee added. “It is more an issue with the rest of the title of the book where you talk about the art of losing.”

Some of the events included in the book are South Africa’s 10-game winning streak being broken by the West Indies in the quarter-finals of the 1996 World Cup, their infamous semi-final tie with Australia in the 1999 World Cup and the 2003 World Cup when they failed to make the play-offs after misreading the Duckworth Lewis system.