OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday 1.45pm
ALI Bacher is likely to be the first witness called by the South African inquiry into the Hansie Cronje affair, an official said on Wednesday.
“He used to open the batting in his playing days, so we may as well start with him here,” the secretary of the judicial commission running the inquiry, John Bacon, said of Bacher.
“We plan to call Bacher as our first witness, depending on his availability.”
Now managing director of the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA), Bacher played 12 tests for South Africa in the 1960s.
Bacon said a date for the first hearing may be set at a meeting between the commission and legal representatives on Thursday.
“We also need to sort out procedures,” Bacon said. “We wouldn’t like to have to put up with too many adjournments.”
Cronje was sacked as South Africa’s captain on April 11 after he admitted taking up to $15000 from a bookmaker for information during a triangular series with England and Zimbabwe in South Africa last January.
On April 7, Cronje and team mates Herschelle Gibbs, Nicky Boje and Pieter Strydom were charged by Indian police with “cheating, fraud and criminal conspiracy related to match-fixing and betting” during a one-day series in India in March.
All have denied the police claims.