Chokers or Format's flaw

Yet another loss in the knock-out stages of the Cricket World cup meant the chokers tag will stick to the Proteas like a "Vote For" poster stuck on an Indian wall.And this has aroused a pertinent question in me,in few others as well I believe.Is the format of the World cup fair enough?The reason i raise this question is the team which has been performing consistently well for a period of 1-2 years falter at one game and are thrown out of the world cup which otherwise were considered big time favorites to grab the world cup.

Their ouster is akin to deducing a team's capability to win the trophy by a single match,if they lose one match then they don't deserve to win the world cup,how fair is this?My fellow friends would sprang up quickly on their toes and argue that a strong/deserving team is one which wins all their matches.To that my argument would be if a team which has performed terribly at the league stage and managed to sneak into the knockout stage by hair's breadth and wins the trophy would that be acceptable? And also if that is the case then why have a league stage after all ,begin the tournament with knock out like they play Tennis.

Having knockouts would be acceptable in Tennis or any other individual sport but not in cricket(or team sports).If one of the players in the team has a horrid day on the field then that team will not fare well in the game that day and their dream of winning would be torn apart.In a game of cricket/football/hockey there is a high chance of a player not playing to his potential on a given day.Cricket has another drawback compared to its counterparts like football/hockey where in any player can be replaced anytime during the play but in cricket the rule doesn't permit.In a world cup event one wants a consistent team to win rather than a dark horse.

So instead of knockout based tournaments,it could be devised on the lines of the coveted English Premier League where teams compete against each other and at the end of the tournament the team with highest points is adjudged the champion.With this fixture we can ensure that the team with the most consistent performance wins.The EPL has been successfully run for almost a century and is not known for giving an unexpected champion whereas time and again Cricket World Cup has given us a dark horse in more than one occasion.

PS:The Invincible West-Indies of the 70's and the mighty Australians of the 90's did lose atleast one match during their unconquerable run but to their good luck they did not lose it in the world cups.