ALAN FINLAY, Johannesburg | Wednesday 8.50am
THE main sponsor of SA cricket’s one-day series has threatened to terminate its sponsorship of the game in the wake of an admission by sacked captain Hansie Cronje that he accepted money from bookmakers.
Cronje admitted on Tuesday that he took $10000 to $15000 for “providing information and forecasting” during a triangular series in South Africa with England and Zimbabwe.
UCB Managing Director Ali Bacher said that an urgent enquiry into the sport in South Africa will be launched.
Both the Standard Bank, which sponsors the national-one day side, and SA Breweries, which sponsors the team as a whole said they will not review their sponsorship at this stage.
However Standard Bank’s group marketing director John Bryant told the Business Day that it will terminate its sponsorship if the crisis is not “resolved satsifactorily”.
While cricket fans across the country reel from the shock of Cronje’s involvement with bookmakers, the exact extent of his involvement remains unclear.
Bacher told a media briefing in Durban on Tuesday that Cronje had phoned him earlier that morning and told him he had accepted, but not deposited, the money.
However, in a statement read by Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour in Cape Town shortly afterwards, Cronje claimed he recieved no money. “I mentioned names of players, but in fact I never spoke to a single player about throwing a match. I never received any financial rewards,” he said in the statement.
Cronje said he was continually harassed by bookmakers during the recent tour of India.
Meanwhile it also remains uncertain whether India will request that Cronje be extradited to that country to face charges of match-fixing.
The disgraced captain could face up to four years in prison in India should he be tried and found guilty of conspiracy, cheating and fraud over there.