CSA chief executive Gerald Majola said on Monday that South Africa's loss to England in their final Champions Trophy group match in Centurion on Sunday was "deeply disappointing".

"There are some hard questions to be answered," said Majola. "At no stage did the team look anything like a team that is the world No 1 in both Tests and one-day internationals.

"They certainly were way off where they should be at this stage, and I will be speaking to Mickey and the team management to find out what went wrong."

But Majola said there were no plans at this stage to fire either the captain or the coach.

"That's not going to happen, but we definitely want answers. The team's performance in this tournament was just not good enough.

"I don't want to pick out individuals, but there were problems with the bowling and the batting, and the team's body language was not that of the world's best team."

South Africa lost to Sri Lanka in the opening match of the tournament, but bounced back to achieve a comfortable victory over New Zealand.

England - fresh from a 6-1 series loss at home to Australia - beat Sri Lanka in their opening match and then outplayed South Africa on Sunday to win by 22 runs. They are assured of a place in the semifinals, and the outcome of the match between England and New Zealand on Tuesday will determine whether they are joined by the Black Caps or the Sri Lankans.

Smith, who made a gallant career-best 141 in a losing cause on Sunday, was visibly disappointed after the match.

"I don't want to make excuses," he said. "England played superbly and Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood set up a very good platform for them.

"We made some mistakes and in the end we just weren't good enough in our three games. We've got to look at ourselves and improve."

South Africa played all three group matches at SuperSport Park, largely as a result of a dispute between CSA and the Gauteng Cricket Board at the time the venues were allocated, and Arthur acknowledged that he would have preferred to have played Sri Lanka at the Wanderers, where the pitch offered more for the pace bowlers.

"The wicket in Centurion was tailor-made for the sub-continent, and we've seen what happened to Sri Lanka at the Wanderers, with balls that have bounced above stump height," Arthur said.

"If I could have picked, I would have preferred to play them at the Wanderers, but it was not to be."

Smith said there would be some soul-searching after yet another early departure from a major tournament.

"We've got the World Twenty20 (in the West Indies in 2010) and the World Cup (in the sub-continent) in 2011, and that's got to be our goal - to play better and perform better in these tournaments," the skipper said.

"The last period of time we've been hugely consistent in the results we've produced, and from our perspective, this (early departure) is very disappointing for us."

The players have returned home, and will be available to play for their franchises in SuperSport Series matches this weekend, apart from those involved in the Champions League Twenty20 tournament in India.

Sapa

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