The offer was there, says Henry Williams

By M.S. Prabhakara

CAPE TOWN, JUNE 9. Three members of the South African cricket team whose names figure in the transcript of the taped conversation released by the Delhi police on April 7 testified before the King Commission inquiring into allegations of bribery and match-fixing in Cape Town on Friday.

The first to testify, opening bowler Henry Williams, confirmed the testimony of Herschelle Gibbs on Thursday about accepting an offer of $15,000 made to each of them by Hansie Cronje in return for playing the last ODI during the tour of India early this year according a plan which would result in South Africa `losing'.

The plan required Gibbs to score less than 20 runs and for Williams to concede 50 runs in his ten-over spell. Williams, a `coloured' player from a working class background and matric level schooling, appeared rather lost as he testified in Afrikaans, sometimes unable to fully comprehend the implications of the close cross examination.

Unlike Gibbs who went on to score 74 and substantially contribute to South Africa's victory, Williams who had sat out the previous three ODIs owing to a shoulder injury, retired after bowling only 11 balls.

In the event, neither of them actually received any money.

One of the more striking aspects of the testimony of both Gibbs and of Williams was their recollection of Hansie Cronje making the offer to them in their hotel room, with a big grin on the face. The two shared a room during the Indian tour, an interesting persistence of the apartheid mind set in that like Williams, Gibbs too is `coloured', though much fairer in appearance than Williams, and obviously from a materially less deprived background.

However, unlike Gibbs, Williams was playing cricket at international level for the first time.

Williams said that he agreed to take the offer because Gibbs had agreed and, moreover, it was the captain who was asking him to do something.

At another point in his testimony, he said: ``$15,000 is a lot of money'' - a sentiment which again tells one more about his background than about his appreciation of the scale of moneys involved in big league cricket.

He said that when he saw his name in the transcripts from Delhi on April 7, he was very nervous and had contacted Gibbs.

He admitted that Cronje had never told him to suppress the truth, but had told Gibbs that we should not tell the truth.

In hindsight, he said, ``I am happy I have told the truth and have cleared my name. I apologise for what I have done. I did something stupid for which I want to be pardoned.''

Both Gibbs and Williams are to face a disciplinary inquiry by the United Cricket Board of South Africa.

Further, Gibbs who had been selected for the Sri Lankan tour next month has been suspended and will not be going to Sri Lanka.

Strydom, Boje testify

The second player to testify today was Pieter Strydom. He said that Hansie Cronje had offered him `in a light-hearted manner' Rand 70,000 to influence the outcome of the first Test in Mumbai (the team scoring less than 250).

He said that he had dismissed the offer as a typical `practical joke' for which Cronje is well known; but later during the match, he said Cronje nudged him and said, ``eh, how about 140?'' in an even more `light-hearted manner'.

He said he spoke to Cronje when he saw his name in the Indian transcript; and that Cronje had told him that he had just `dropped a few names to shake off the pests' - meaning, to escape the pressure and harassment from the Indian bookies.

Strydom also said he had an occasional flutter on the outcome of cricket matches overseas; but insisted that he had never been involved in match-fixing.

Questioning on this followed his admission that Hansie Cronje had asked him, during the nearly washed out Centurion Park Test early this year between England and South Africa, as to what odds could be obtained that the game would produce a result. It is now suspected that the `result' that the match produced on the last day, following the agreement between the two captains to forfeit the first innings, was influenced as much by a desire to provide a spectacle to the `cricket loving public' as by other considerations.

Strydom said that he thought Cronje was joking; ``even now I am not sure if he was serious or joking'', he said.

The third player to testify was Nicky Boje, named like the others in the Indian transcripts.

A close personal friend of Hansie Cronje (their parents too are close to each other), he insisted that at no time had Cronje made any offer to him to throw a game. The only time he heard of such a thing was when Cronje told the team during the 1996 tour of India of the offer of $250,000 he had received to throw the last match of the tour, the Mohinder Amarnath benefit which had been converted into an ODI.

He said that he was shocked to see his name in the transcript. He said he had no idea how it appeared in the transcript.

``The only person who can say anything about it is Hansie Cronje himself,'' Boje said.

Despite repeated prodding from the advocates for the Commission and the UCBSA, Boje said he had never asked Cronje, who he maintained remained his close personal friend, for an explanation.

He said he asked Cronje, `what is going on?' but had never directly asked why his name was being mentioned.

``I did not need to ask him because I know I am innocent.''

An interesting feature of Boje's testimony was his repeated reference to himself as a `Christian' - a defence and a virtue freely canvassed by Cronje on his behalf.

The obverse side of this self-image is the perception openly suggested that these two were peculiarly vulnerable, because of these very virtues, in the uniquely corrupt environment of `sub- continental corruption'.

It would be interesting to see what direction such a reading, the sub-text of much of the analysis and the probing of the Hansiegate saga in the South African media, will take as the inquiry proceeds.

In the meanwhile, in her testimony during the afternoon session, Ms. Bronwyn Wilkinson, the UCB communications director, said that she had called Hansie Cronje seven times as soon as she learnt of the news from Delhi on April 7, and that he had treated it dismissively.

The Commission will resume its hearings on Monday.

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