South African cricket has been thrown into further public scrutiny after the national team crashed out of the ICC Champions Trophy, going down to the West Indies on Sunday.

South Africa were beaten by five wickets on the same day that India were denied a place in the semi-final by archrivals Pakistan.

Cricket commentators and observers have called for a thorough debate on the Graeme Smith-led team that has now lost 11 of their last 12 matches barring their opening ICC Champions Trophy match against Bangadesh.

South Africa went into the Champions Trophy on the back of a humiliating 5-0 whitewash against Sri Lanka, who also beat them in the preceding two-Test series 1-0.

The South African players will now be involved in domestic cricket for a month before travelling to India for a two-Test series against Sourav Ganguly's team.

After the short Indian tour, the South Africans will return home to host England for a full Test and one-day series.

Realising that their heads were on the block, both Smith and coach Eric Simons have been quoted as saying that they are disappointed by the defeat and will now concentrate on their tour of India.

Smith told The Mercury  in Durban that it was difficult for him to say where the team is heading.

"We have not played to our best in the last nine weeks, so we are obviously disappointed," he said.

"We will all be involved in domestic fixtures for a month. This will give us a chance to think about where we are now and where we want to go."

Simons, for this part, was quoted in the same publication as saying that he wanted to concentrate on the positives, rather than dwelling on negatives.

"There are a number of things we are pleased about if you can put it that way. We came into this match [against the West Indies Sunday] and lost the toss and got to 246," said Simons, whose position now appears uncertain.

"Maybe we could have got a few more runs, but there were a lot of things that we did well. Unfortunately, at crucial moments we have not done things well and that has cost us matches," he said.