OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Tuesday 6.30pm
AUSTRALIAN cricket captain Steve Waugh said on Tuesday that he is “shocked and disappointed” by South African cricket board chief Ali Bacher’s statement that suspended South African skipper Hansie Cronje acknowledged receiving between $10000 and $15000 during a triangular tournament in South Africa earlier this year.
Waugh spoke without being aware that, at the same moment, Cronje was denying having received any financial reward.
Bacher, managing director of the UCBSA, was addressing a press conference in Durban and said the money was given to Cronje for “providing information and forecast but not match-fixing.”
Cronje, who has been charged with three team-mates by Indian police with match-fixing there, issued his denial in Cape Town through Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour, who said Cronje “played along” with a contact “and lied to him about trying to influence matches.”
Waugh, reacting to Bacher’s statement, said: “I feel sorry for his (Cronje’s) family and the people who supported him during the week. “They are probably the worst done by. He’s got to live with what he’s done.”
Waugh said match-fixing is a major issue which has to be addressed.
“We can’t sweep it under the carpet,” he said. “It’s got to be cleared up. Ninety-nine percent of people who play cricket are hurting at the moment.
“You want young people to play the game and to know that when people go out there to play that it’s all above board and they are trying all the time, and it’s not been happening.”
Waugh’s Australians play South Africa under new skipper Shaun Pollock in a three-match limited-overs series, with the first match taking place in Durban on Wednesday.
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