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Derided throughout South Africa for their sub-standard performances, the West Indies team was subjected to one of its most withering verbal attacks yesterday by a columnist in one of the country's leading daily newspapers.

Writing in the Cape Times, Mark Keohane called them ``clowns'', ``maroon jammied sleep-walkers'', ``a bunch of imposters'' and ``con artists'' and complained he felt cheated out of the 130 rand he paid to attend Tuesday's Fifth One-day International that South Africa won by 89 runs.

``The rand, globally, is a bit like this West Indies team-worth nothing,'' Keohane wrote. ``But if you're getting paid in rand, then R130 is a whack to have spent on these clowns. Wrong, not clowns, because at least the money would have ensured a few laughs. Instead, all we got was a Windies yawn.''

He said he paid in the hope that, in spite of the 5-0 result in the Test series, the 3-1 deficit in the One-day Internationals and last year's 3-0 defeat of the West Indies ``A'' team, ``it could not get worse''.

``Somewhere, like hopefully at Newlands on Tuesday night, these giants had to awake from their summer slumber,'' he added. ``I was wrong.''

He warned those who have already paid for tickets for the final two matches ``the guys wearing the maroon pyjamas are a bunch of imposters''.

``Con artists who talked of one helluva show a few months ago, demanded more money for it, held the cricketing world to ransom and then delivered nothing,'' Keohane fumed.

``They even conned Spiced Gold into giving them a sponsorship when no one else would,'' he noted. ``South Africans, still apologetic for their existence and the most charitable of host sporting nations, went through endless trouble to make sure the Windies were treated like the royalty their pre-tour demands would have had us believe they were.''

He charged that South Africa cricket chief Ali Bacher's repeated reference to the significance of the historic tour ``was all a public relations exercise to get the 130 big ones from us hapless souls''.

``Perhaps Dr Bacher should pay 130 bucks every time he goes to watch cricket,'' Keohane advised. ``He may just view the Caribbean Sleepwalkers differently.''