It is hard to understand how such a talented group of players can keep coming home to an exasperated public empty-handed. Twenty years waiting for a cup, any cup, is just plain ridiculous. It's not funny anymore. It feels almost as though we've been lied to; we've been conned.
We were repeatedly assured that this time it would be different. One was almost tempted to believe the spiel. Going into the tournament, we had four batsmen in the top 10, with captain AB de Villiers - one of the best players of his generation - at the top of the tree. Imran Tahir and Kagiso Rabada competed for the top spot in the bowling category. Nobody, we thought, could hold a candle to our team.
No stone was left unturned in preparation. Everything was about winning the Champions Trophy. De Villiers led the chorus. We even grudgingly forgave him when he inexplicably pulled out of the test tour which, we hope, will settle all scores with England. Our man was readying himself for the battle that would soon be at hand. He would lead from the front.
As it turned out, he led the capitulation. De Villiers's last contribution to the Champions Trophy was to pick himself up from the venerable turf at The Oval in that crunch game against India, who seem to delight in humiliating us at every tournament.
Our hero departed, but we still had hope. We bat deep, we've always been told. David Miller materialised. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. But he, too, was on the floor in no time. It was, I guess, a case of Miller following his leader.At which point even the more optimistic among us must have realised it was curtains. There was not much to come. Everybody knows JP Duminy has no stomach for a battle. This was war. And if choking had a human face, it would look like Chris Morris.
Sportsmen love the adulation when they do well. A little bit of ribbing when they fail us does no harm. But it won't make up for the agony.
It is not so much that they lost. It is the manner in which they lost. It was comical and - for the seasoned and well-paid sportsmen that they are - amateurish.
We caved in at the first sight of gunfire. It's also become predictable. It's been a parade of failures since that ignominious run-out involving Lance Klusener and Allan Donald at Headingley almost 20 years ago. One can almost still hear the gleeful chuckle of the Australian players to this day. It hurts.
Now, it seems, it's the turn of the Indians to rub our noses in the mud. Losing is part of sport, but this is absurd. The characters may change but it's the same old plot or drama repeating itself at every tournament.
Whatever Cricket South Africa is doing is clearly not working. It also seems from a distance that some players can do as they please. How, for instance, can a player of De Villiers's calibre be allowed to pull out of a tour? How can the country afford to do without him? It's also hard to understand how, as a leader, he thinks he can dip in and out of the team and still succeed.
After the disastrous Twenty20 tournament in India, Haroon Lorgat said there'd be a postmortem of that debacle. However, that was later quietly shelved without any explanation. Also, was it necessary to announce, on the eve of the Champions Trophy and an important tour to England, that the coach's job would be advertised?
Sport provides some form of escapism, especially for a country going through such trauma. But when a team loses in such a shambolic fashion, it exacerbates that pain.Also, we've tended to over-egg sport's role in uniting the country. Excellence on the pitch cannot by itself be the foundational pillar of national unity. It can, if you like, be the icing on the cake once a genuine stab at unity has been made. Victories by the Springboks and Bafana Bafana in the 1990s did not on their own create even a veneer of unity.
The country was in a buoyant mood after what was a relatively successful transfer of power. And, in Nelson Mandela, the country had a leader who symbolised that spirit and the willingness to come together.
Right now the situation is completely the opposite. The nation is in mortal danger from those who are sworn to lead it. The president is not only swimming against public sentiment; he's using his access to power to loot, not to serve. Which may explain why he wants to cut and run.
We should not put undue pressure on our sportspeople. They will invariably do well when we as a country show a desire to succeed...