Anthem Goof-Up at Kotla

South African fans livid over anthem goof-up

New Delhi, Feb 25 : The World Cup organisers, under flak for the ticket sales fiasco in Bangalore, had more embarrassment at the Feroz Shah Kotla here yesterday when the sound system failed midway through the South African national anthem.

The large contingent of South African fans, here to watch their national side take on West Indies, completed the anthem. It brought a huge smile on skipper Graeme Smith's face and he waved to his supporters, who have flown halfway across the globe for this mega event.

One agitated fan, Michael from Cape Town, said: "How could they do that?

It was so disrespectful. We completed the anthem because they cut it short. It was quite an embarrassment.

Hope they have an explanation for it. I hope it is not repeated in our future games." ICC media manager Colin Gibson attributed the awkward moment to a technical glitch.

"We apologise to the fans of South Africa, and did not mean to harm  anyone or hurt sentiments.

Only half the anthem played due to a technical glitch. The sound engineers did not have adequate time to test the system due to a delayed arrival at the ground.

We had the whole anthem in the library but it didn't play due to a technical glitch," Gibson told