/ 15 November 2011

Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandal to be reopened

Indian police will reopen the match-fixing scandal case involving the late South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje.

Indian police will reopen the match-fixing scandal case involving former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje, according to a report.

This was because Delhi police were still awaiting a forensic laboratory report on match-fixing, which Cronje admitted to in 2000, the Indian Express online reported earlier this month.

“It was in 2009 that we had sent the voice samples of conversations between the accused — Hansie Cronje and London-based bookie Sanjeev Chawla — to the forensic laboratory for examination. Till now we are yet to receive the report,” a senior police officer reportedly said.

The laboratory would be contacted to expedite the tests and a crime branch would examine the case files next week.

The match-fixing charges also implicated India’s ex-skipper Mohammad Azharuddin.

The decision to re-open the investigation comes after three Pakistani players — Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir — were sentenced to jail for spot-fixing by a British court.

Cronje admitted to taking money from bookmakers but denied fixing any matches. He died in a plane crash in 2002. — Sapa