OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 5.45pm.
SOUTH African opening batsman Herschelle Gibbs on Thursday effectively sealed Hansie Cronje’s fate when he confessed he had accepted an offer from his former skipper to make less than 20 runs in a one-day match in India in exchange for $15000.
The bombshell confession also casts a dark shadow over Gibbs’ own cricketing future, with the chief of the South African selectors, Kepler Wessels, warning that the opening batsman was now in “serious trouble.”
Gibbs directly contradicted a statement by Cronje that he had not approached any other players to affect the outcome of matches for money, or that he had ever been involved in match-fixing.
Giving evidence before the King Commission of inquiry into corruption in South African cricket, Gibbs also implicated opening bowler Henry Williams, his roommate, whom he said had accepted an offer from Cronje to bowl badly in the same game, also for a payment of $15000.
The 26-year-old batsman admitted that he had lied to teammates and officials on eight different occasions. He claimed that on two occasions Cronje had asked him to deny that he had accepted the bribe offer. Neither Gibbs nor Williams collected the payment because they did not carry out their side of the deal.
Wessels told SABC radio that the latest revelations were going to be “problematic” for South African cricket. It depends how many players come forward and admit they were part of this scam,” he said.
“The game needs cleaning up very badly and so anybody who admits to or is found guilty of match-fixing is going to face serious disciplinary action.” Wessels, who preceded Cronje as South African cricket captain, added: “You have to say that Hansie Cronje is in serious trouble, but so is Herschelle Gibbs now after these admissions.”
The match in question was the fifth and final one-day international in Nagpur on March 19. India had already won the series.
Gibbs said: “Hansie came into our room on the morning of the match with a huge grin on his face. He said there was an offer for me to make $15000 if I made less than 20 and I said yes.”
Gibbs said he was sure of the date because it was his mother’s birthday. “My parents were getting divorced, my father had a temporary job and I knew I would have to look after my mom for the rest of her life.”
Williams was then approached, said Gibbs. “Hansie said the same guy would give him the same money if he went for not less than 50 runs in his 10 overs. He accepted.” Gibbs said Cronje had told him that the South African team should not score more than 270 runs.
In the end, all three arrangements fell through. Gibbs said he batted “like a steam train” and went on to score 74 off 53 balls.
He said he had scored “30 or 40” when Cronje came in to bat and reminded him of the deal. “Then he said just to carry on.”
The team scored more than 300.
Williams, who had been a doubtful starter because of injury, broke down after 1.5 overs and could not complete his spell.
Gibbs said he had lied to protect Cronje.
United Cricket Board of South Africa managing director Ali Bacher said on Thursday the UCB executive would meet on Friday to discuss the implications of Gibbs’s confession and whether he should retain his place in the South African team to tour Sri Lanka next month.
“We were put in the picture by Gibbs’s lawyers at a special meeting in Johannesburg last Friday,” Bacher said.
“The fact that he has admitted to having taken a bribe is basically the commission’s affair, but the fact that he lied to me, basically his boss, on no less than five occasions is a different matter.” — AFP