Gary Kirsten helped India reclaim the 50-over World Cup in 2011 but was unable to weave the same magic for his home side South Africa who have not won any silverware yet again at the Champions Trophy.
When Gary Kirsten and AB de Villiers' took up the mantle of coach and captain of the South African team many saw a lot of promise.
But now as Kirsten steps down as coach of the Proteas cricket team, he leaves with his mission unaccomplished as South Africa continue to be called chokers after their annihilation by England in the Champions Trophy semi-final.
South Africa have for sometime been consistent performers in ODI, Test and T20 cricket even rising to the top of the rankings in each, but when it comes to winning trophies in big competitions like the World Cup they are never able to perform well.
The South African team has earned the choker tag due to their reputation of being eliminated in strange ways from three World Cups.
In 1992 during the semi-final of the World Cup that saw a two-over rain delay the Duckworth-Lewis method was used to revise the target and that meant their target of 22 runs from 13 balls was reduced to 21 runs from 1 ball after the controversial "maximum scoring overs" rain rule was applied.
Though this could be blamed on chance, fate and bad luck, in the 1999 World Cup Super Six Stage, Herschelle Gibbs dropped Steve Waugh who went on to score a century and then a bizarre run-out in the semi-final ended South Africa's hope of a win against Australia with the scores tied. Australia progressed on the basis of superior run rate.
In the 2003 World Cup group stage which was a knock-out match that they had to win to progress to the super six, South Africa tied the match against Sri Lanka which was affected by rain even though they could have won as they misinterpreted their Duckworth-Lewis rain rule tables.
In 1996 and 2011 South Africa topped their group in the group stages but went on to lose to West Indies and New Zealand respectively who were both second in their group.
The T20 World Cups have also been an unsuccessful story with the 'choker curse' refusing to leave the Proteas.
Well aware of their past in big competitions Kirsten and De Villiers tried to stand up to the challenge of ensuring that South Africa win at least the Champions Trophy a small step towards World Cup glory, but were unsuccessful.
Now De Villiers will have to try to recoup with a new coach as he looks to achieve what Graeme Smith and Hansie Cronje could not-a World Cup trophy for South Africa and redemption as they still seek to get the choker monkey off their back.
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