OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday 12.00pm.
SWEET shop owner Hamid Cassim told the King Commission on Monday that he saw London-based bookmaker Sanjay Chawla hand an envelope containing money to former South African captain Hansie Cronje.
”…they had a conversation for about 10 minutes relating to cricket. They talked about match forecasting, pitch conditions, team selections (and) the conditions upon winning the toss,” Cassim told the 10th day of the commission of inquiry into match-fixing.
I then saw Sanjay take an envelope containing money and hand it to Mr Cronje. I was surprised that Cronje took it.
Chawla said: ‘Keep this and we’ll talk later’.”
The handover took place in a Durban hotel on January 31 on the eve of a limited overs match between South Africa and Zimbabwe, Cassim said.
Cronje was sacked as captain after he admitted in April that he had taken money from bookmakers, prompting the South African government to launch the inquiry.
Cronje admitted to the inquiry last week that he took close to $100000 from bookies but denied fixing matches.
Cassim denied on Monday that he was involved in match-fixing, telling Judge King that he had merely introduced Cronje to Chawla.
Cassim said the 180 phone calls he made to Cronje in January, February and March showed his love of the sport.
”It is my nature to phone all the players all the time,” Cassim said. ”I tried to keep in contact with all the players all the time.”
A record of Cassim’s phone calls produced by his lawyer Mannie Witz showed that the Johannesburg shop owner also phoned Cronje’s team mates Darryl Cullian 33 times, Lance Kluesner 28 times, Hershelle Gibbs 14 times and Paul Adams 30 times.
The same records show that Cronje made 11 calls to Cassim and Gibbs made three.
Cassim is believed to be the inquiry’s final witness.
Judge Edwin King must hand his report to President Thabo Mbeki by June 30. — Reuters