DAVID SHAPSHAK, Durban | Tuesday 4.00pm
UNITED Cricket Board chief Ali Bacher says sacked cricket captain Hansie Cronje took $10000 to $15000 for “providing information and forecasting” during a triangular series in South Africa but not while he was in India.
“He denies deliberately trying to lose a match (and) he hasn’t spoken about deliberately trying to influence the outcome of a match,” Bacher told a press conference in Durban where the Proteas are preparing for the first of three one-day matches against Australia tomorrow.
“We do have a crisis on our hands in South African cricket,” Bacher said.
He said Cronje took the money “on only one occasion” during the triangular series against England and Zimbabwe in January and February but did not say what he was given it for.
“During triangular one day series in South Africa, contact made with him by a local South African [businessman] and a bookmaker of Indian origin based in London. Discussions took place and the end result was that Hansie was given between $10000 to $15000 which he took home but as of today he has not deposited this but did receive the money.”
Although Cronje was harassed continually by bookmakers during the recent tour to India, he never received any further money, Bacher says.
Cronje had stressed the three other players implicated by Indian police — Herschelle Gibbs, Nicky Boje and Pieter Strydom — were not involved in any way. Bacher said all the other players had strongly denied any match-fixing involvement during a meeting with him on Tuesday.
Shaun Pollock, who assumes the captaincy after Cronje’s contract was immediately suspended, said the startlingly revelations “shocked all of us”.
Bacher, who was phoned at 3am this morning by Cronje to admit he had not been “entirely honest”, said: “We in South African cricket are shattered. The UCB, the government and the people have been deceived.”
The UCB has spoken to Sports Minister Ncgonde Balfour and asked for an independent commission of inquiry to be established.
Judge Albie Sacks, currently in the United States, is the UCB’s representative on the ICC’s code of conduct committee and the government says it will provide a judge should he not be available to chair the inquiry.
Asked if the board had washed its hands of the disgraced captain, UCB president Percy Sonn replied: “The UCB has agreement with Hansie Cronje. We have sufficient information to suspend the contract and have withdrawn him from national teamThat is an indication of how serious we take that new information.”
Sonn said the board will help Indian police, who claimed on Monday to have “clinching evidence against Cronje, in their investigation: “Whatever they decide, we will support.”
“It is a vindication of our stand,” New Delhi Police Commissioner Ajay Raj Sharma said after Bacher’s press conference.
Sharma insisted the investigations into the match-fixing allegations were conducted in a “scientific and thorough” manner.
“We took our time before lodging the case as we were conscious about the good relations we enjoyed with South Africa,” he said.