Obituary: Hansie’s rollercoaster career

Until his involvement in a cricket match-fixing scandal two years ago, Wessel Johannes ”Hansie” Cronje, who died in a plane crash near George on Saturday morning, was one of South Africa’s most popular sporting personalities.

His death has brought down the curtain on a sporting career that reached great heights as captain of the national team, only for it to end in a life-long ban from the game.

Born in Bloemfontein on September 25 1969 and educated at Grey College, he advanced through the cricket ranks to captain the SA Nuffield team in 1987, and thereafter Free State and South Africa.

When South Africa regained admittance to world cricket Cronje was chosen to accompany the first touring team to India in 1991 as an observer but months later he was a member of the World Cup squad in Australia and New Zealand.

He made his Test debut against the West Indies at Bridgetown, Barbados in 1992 with little success and then was not considered for the first home Test against India later that year.

He was recalled for the second Test and then made 136 – his Test highest – in the third Test at Port Elizabeth in a victory for the home team.

Thereafter he was a regular in the Test team until 2000.

Another century followed in the South African win against Sri Lanka at Colombo in 1993-94.

As vice-captain to Kepler Wessels in Australia later that season he was at the helm in the exciting second Test at Sydney which South Africa won by five runs after Wessels had injured his knee and had left the field.

In early 1994 he was in scintillating form against Australia with a fine 122 at the Wanderers when SA won again and he could not go wrong with the bat during the limited-overs tournament that followed the Tests.

He took over as captain from Wessels in 1994-95 when New Zealand toured South Africa and through proactive captaincy South Africa enjoyed some stirring and spectacular wins.

He enjoyed immediate success and series were won against New Zealand -after SA lost the first Test – and in a one-off Test in early 1995 in New Zealand, a bold Cronje declaration led to another excellent win.

England were vanquished 1-0 in 1995-96, the first series they had lost in SA since 1930-31, and Pakistan and Zimbabwe were blown away with big wins.

A Cronje-led team had a series win in Pakistan in 1997-98 – a rare thing – but in two series against Australia during 1997-98 South Africa were unable to beat the world champions.

Another setback occurred in England in 1998 when, after starting the series well with a magnificent win at Lord’s in the second Test, South Africa lost the series 2-1 after a number of bad umpiring decisions went against the tourists.

South Africa, however, bounced back with a 5-0 whitewash of the West Indies during the following summer but were disappointingly knocked out of the 1999 World Cup when they tied their semi-final match with Australia at Birmingham.

But Cronje’s career sunk to its nadir soon after returning from the tour to India in April, 2000 when allegations that he had been involved in match-fixing during the Indian tour surfaced.

At first these were denied by Cronje but the New Delhi police announced they were intent on filing charges against Cronje and three of his team-mates on that tour.

An early morning confession to United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCB) managing director Ali Bacher led to Cronje being axed as captain of the South African team who were just about to start a limited-overs series with the visiting Australians.

Natal allrounder, Shaun Pollock took over the captaincy from Cronje.

Cronje’s contract with the UCB ended on April 30 2000 and his contract was not renewed pending investigations into the allegations.

In early 2000 Cronje had came under fire from cricket purists when he and England captain Nasser Hussain had each agreed to forfeit an innings in the rain-ruined fifth Test at Centurion. It was the first occasion in Test-match history that an innings had been forfeited and his decision to do so was brought up during the King Commission of Inquiry held in June of 2000.

During the inquiry Cronje admitted to receiving large sums of money from Indian bookmakers but denied that he had ever thrown a match for money.

His motivation had been greed and he admitted that his ”unfortunate love of money” had contributed to his downfall.

”I am not addicted to alcohol or nicotine but I believe this is very similar to an alcohol problem,” he said on the second day of the inquiry.

The UCB banned Cronje from all cricket under its jurisdiction, a decision which Cronje fought against in September 2001. Cronje had wanted to put something back into cricket by coaching or possibly commentating at matches.

However, the ban was upheld a month later.

In recent months, now out of the limelight, Cronje accepted a business position as a financial manager of Bell Equipment in Johannesburg to where he commuted from his home in George.

He was returning home for a weekend visit when the accident occurred.

He leaves a wife, Bertha. The couple had met while at the University of Free State.

Cricket fans will remember Cronje as a hard-hitting batsman, capable of tearing any attack in the world to shreds, a canny medium-paced bowler, a brilliant fielder in any position and a shrewd captain.

He will also go down in history as the man who captained South Africa in the most Test matches – 53 – of which 27 were won, 11 lost and 15 drawn.

In 68 Tests Cronje scored 3 714 runs (average 36,41) with six centuries and 23 50s, and he captured 43 wickets (29,95) with a best of 3/14. – Sapa