Cronje emphatic in denying charges

By M.S.Prabhakara

CAPE TOWN, APRIL 10 Speaking for the first time to the media since the allegations about match fixing became public, Hansie Cronje, the captain of the South African cricket team has categorically denied any involvement in such activities.

Addressing a media conference yesterday evening in Durban during the break in the limited over practice match (in preparation for the three match ODI against Australia beginning on Wednesday in Durban), Cronje said: ``I want to make it one hundred per cent clear that I deny ever receiving any sum of money during the ODI series in India. I never spoke to any member of the team about throwing a game. I have never received any sum of money for any match that I have been involved in, and I have never approached any of the players and asked them if they wanted to fix a game''. He also added that if necessary he would make available his bank statements to clear his name.

Two of the three players 'named' in the reports from Delhi, Herschelle Gibbs and Nicky Boje, were present at the media conference and supported their skipper.

The South African Press Agency reported today that South African cricket team would not be returning to India in the immediate future, and would not be taking part in the ``five benefit matches scheduled to start in two weeks''. After the three ODI against Australia in this country, the Proteas are scheduled to travel to Australia for a return three match series.

A peculiar feature of the brewing row between South Africa and India on what is already being referred to in some reports as Hansiegate is that though there have been reports galore purporting to reflect the official views of the South African government, there has been no contact between the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Indian High Commission in Pretoria on this matter.

However, a statement issued by the United Cricket Board of South Africa on Saturday (8 April) quoted the deputy minister for foreign affairs as saying that South Africa would 'seek an explanation' from the Government of India in respect of two matters: One, the tapping of the SA players' telephones; and two, 'the process by which the allegations were made pubic'. There has also been a persistent, indeed peremptory, demand, for the handing over of the 'original tapes' to enable South Africa to carry out an 'independent inquiry'. In a radio interview this morning, the Managing Director of the UCBSA, Dr. Ali Bacher, repeated the demand: ``The bottom line is that we want those original tapes''.

According to the statement from the Delhi police (carried in the Sunday papers), the tapping which was done after obtaining the required permission from the magistrate was of the telephones of suspected match fixers; and South African players entered the scene after their names figured in the tapped conversations.

In so far as the 'process by which the allegations were made public', a senior official of the Indian High Commission in Pretoria told this correspondent that the South African High Commission in Delhi had been informed about the development before the Delhi police went public. It is most unlikely that the 'tapes' will be handed over since these form vital evidence in the police case.

Though a diplomatic row seems to be hotting up, it is unlikely that these developments will adversely affect relations between India and South Africa. This, despite the hype and indignation and the barely concealed racism in much of the media reporting which assumes that match fixing is the unique provenance of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and that South Africans simply do not engage in such practices; and the profound denial mode in which South Africans of a certain category (meaning the predominantly white males who have been most voluble in their indignant reaction) seem to be trapped when faced with something unpleasant.

However, if it were to turn out that the Delhi police have mucked up their homework and there is really no case, or if it were to be well and truly established that the whole exercise has been an elaborate set-up to trap and defame Hansie Cronje, an icon of South African sports, then India-South Africa relations will be in for a rough time.

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