Peter Robinson
If Bob Woolmer could be persuaded to take one position on Hansie Cronje and stick to it, then it might be possible to establish, if not guilt, then at least some kind of responsibility for the former captain’s fall from grace.
All around the world this week, cricket tried to come to terms with the King commission and, in particular, the startling claims made by United Cricket Board chief Ali Bacher during his evidence on Monday.
In Pakistan umpire Javed Akhtar threatened to sue Bacher; in London three men were arrested in connection with the case on Tuesday; in India calls went out for Bacher to back up his claims with hard evidence; in Bangladesh officials refuted the allegation that last year’s World Cup victory over Pakistan was fixed; in Australia administrators reacted sniffily to the suggestion that their side and their board might be better at fiddling games than most.
And Woolmer, meanwhile, returned to London from South Africa after a brief visit to publicise his new book. Woolmer’s views on the affair seem to change almost on a weekly basis. At first he backed Cronje to the hilt, then as the allegations of match-fixing started to gather weight said he felt betrayed and claimed that he “nearly went mad” when he heard of the $250 000 offer discussed by the South African team in Bombay in 1996.
At the beginning of last week, shortly before the King commission started its hearings, Woolmer called for Cronje to be brought back into cricket as quickly as possible. Quite what he thinks now is difficult to fathom.
The questions, however, that remain are: what did he know, when did he know it and who did he tell? Few of the players at the 1996 meeting can remember Woolmer’s presence and Pat Symcox is adamant he was not there.
Dave Richardson, however, recalls Woolmer coming into the room after the offer had been discussed and rejected to talk about tactics for the match.
Whatever the case, Woolmer has said that he told Bacher of the offer and at one point claimed that the matter had been included in his report on the tour. Bacher denied under oath that Woolmer had spoken to him about it before the scandal broke in April and while there is a good deal of grumbling in Woolmer’s report about the food, hotels and practice facilities in India, there is no mention of an offer made to the team.
If Woolmer was aware of the approach at the time, it is a mystery why he didn’t include it in his report. A notoriously insecure man, he would, at the very least, have covered himself.
Robbie Muzzell was manager of the 1996 team, but he says he did not know of the offer until April this year. This is entirely plausible. By the end of the tour Muzzell had marginalised himself, leaving most of the running of the tour to assistant manager Goolam Rajah.
The players had lost respect for Muzzell. After the final one-day game in Bombay, at around midnight and with the tourists set to leave for home at around 4am the next morning, Muzzell got into a lift with Herschelle Gibbs. Muzzell was in blazer and tie, Gibbs in shorts and a T-shirt, with his cap turned backwards and a beer in his hand.
“What are going to do now?” asked Gibbs. Muzzell said he intended to catch a few hours’ sleep. Gibbs looked him up and down. “In your number ones?” he asked.
So it goes back to Woolmer as the man best positioned to have known of the offer at the time. And if some action had been taken in 1996, either by himself or the United Cricket Board, who knows? Perhaps the King commission might not be preparing itself to put Cronje on the stand.
Peter Robinson is the editor of Cricinfo South Africa