Court turns down Cronje's appeal

By M.S. Prabhakara

CAPE TOWN, OCT. 17. The Pretoria High Court today turned down the appeal by former South African cricket captain, Hansie Cronje, seeking to overturn the life ban imposed on him by the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA).

Upholding the ban in a ruling this morning, Mr Justice Frank Kirk-Cohen, however, said the UCBSA could not bar Cronje from involving himself in cricket coaching and related promotional activities in structures not affiliated to the UCBSA. The fact, however, is that over 90 per cent of schools playing cricket in South Africa are in some way or other affiliated to the UCBSA.

The judge also ruled that UCBSA could also not prevent Cronje from securing employment in such fields. While the UCBSA could bar Cronje from access to media facilities at cricket grounds affiliated to it, the Board had to consider on its merits any application by Cronje for accreditation to use these facilities.

In his application, Cronje had challenged the life ban on the ground that it impinged on his Constitutional rights to earn a living. The ban, his application argued, was aimed at ``interfering with his personal, private and social life.''

Another point made in his application was that the ban had been imposed without his being given a fair hearing by the UCBSA and so was in contravention of both his own contract with the UCBSA as well as the provisions of the Labour Relations Act.

However, during the hearings before the Pretoria High Court last month, the lawyers for UCBSA argued that Cronje, ``a fallen idol who had cheated and brought the game of cricket into disrepute,'' was only trying to make more money out of cricket through this application. ``What he seeks, in essence, in this court is a court order to force the cricket establishment to play with him,'' the lead lawyer argued, adding, rather sanctimoniously, ``What he does not understand is that cheats do not belong to the game of cricket.''

The life ban was imposed following the admission by Hansie Cronje in April last year, within days of the initial denials strongly supported by the UCBSA, of his involvement in bribe taking and match-fixing activities, mostly, though not solely, in India and South Africa. Soon after these revelations and his removal as captain of the South African cricket team, Cronje announced that he would not be seeking to return to the national team.

The matter was the subject of a Commission of Inquiry set up under a Presidential order. However, the King Commission of Inquiry into Cricket Match Fixing and Related Matters adjourned on June 26 last year after just 11 days of hearings and never resumed its sittings, leaving the matters hanging in the air, as it were. In its `final report', it also failed to express any opinion regarding the `credibility' of Cronje's testimony, a crucial requirement which alone would have provided Cronje indemnity against prosecution.

After this inconclusive end to the inquiry with no clear judicial finding against Cronje, his lawyers tried to find a compromise settlement with UCBSA to overturn the life ban, which would have enabled Cronje to function as a coach and commentator. That having failed, the legal challenge followed.

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