Hansie Cronje, match-fixing and the plane crash which left a
When Delhi authorities launched transcripts of taped conversations between Cronje and Indian bookie Sanjeev Chawlar in early April 2000 it was consulted with rejections from the male himself and South African cricket officials, and broader disbelief.Cronje was initially determined in the calls by a quirk of fate. Pradeep Srivastava, the deputy commissioner of Delhi’s crime department, had been working on extortion cases and taken some tapes home with him.One of Srivastava’s children had listened to a wire-tap cassette,
left in the home hi-fi system, and asked his dad why he had a recording of Cronje’s voice. Srivastava’s son had actually watched a post-match interview with Cronje on Indian
tv the previous day and identified his voice.With the net closing, Cronje came tidy. At 3am on 11 April 2000 he confessed to Rory Steyn, a South African security expert working for the Australia cricket team, in a Durban hotel where the pair were staying.” I strolled into his suite and all the lights were on, “Steyn kept in mind.”He had a handwritten document and said ‘you might have thought, however a few of the things
that is being said versus me is actually true ‘.
“A couple of months later on, Cronje attended the King Commission where he was used resistance from prosecution in exchange for full disclosure.During 3 days
of cross assessments, broadcast on tv and radio, which gripped South Africa and the cricket world, Cronje provided his side of the story.
Or at least a few of it, offered the input of his own lawyers.He admitted to taking large amounts of money, in addition to accepting a leather jacket for his better half Bertha, in exchange for giving details
to bookmakers and asking his team-mates to play badly.But he claimed South
Africa had never “tossed “or”fixed” a match under his captaincy.”To my better half, family, and team-mates, in particular, I apologise,”he said during a rather robotic reading of an opening declaration long lasting 45
minutes.Cronje was prohibited from cricket for life, unsuccessfully challenging the suspension. Further examinations
into the fact of what Cronje said throughout the questions were stopped when he died in an aircraft crash in June 2002. Cronje had actually boarded a little cargo airplane in
Johannesburg which decreased in mountainous surface amid bad weather while attempting
to land at George airport.Cronje, then working as an account manager for a maker of sturdy building and construction devices, was flying back to see his spouse
at their home near Fancourt Estate, a luxury golf resort.His death was put down to weather, pilot error and possible instrument failure, however nevertheless triggered conspiracy theories.Former Nottinghamshire captain Clive Rice, who played three ODIs for South Africa, called Cronje’s death”very fishy “and linked it to the subsequent death of Bob Woolmer, the former South Africa coach
who was in charge of Pakistan when he died. “Certain people needed him [Cronje] out. Whether it was one, two, or 15 individuals that were going to die it didn’t matter,”stated Rice, who died in 2015.”Hansie was the one that was going to need to go and if they might cover it up as an aircraft crash then that was fine.” Strangely, Cronje himself had predicted in speeches, and composed in a publication
, of the possible to”die in airplane crash”because of the”consistent travel by air”. Ed Hawkins, a specialist wagering investigative reporter, dismissed the notion that bookies were in some way behind the incident.”I have actually never ever found any info generally worth my time or effort to introduce a major investigation,”
Hawkins said.Steyn, the security consultant called it “ridiculous “to suggest there was a”conspiracy to murder him by bringing the airplane down”.