Hansie Cronje, a celebrated figure in South Africa, played a significant role in the country's sports history. Following the end of apartheid in 1991, South Africa re-entered the world of test cricket in April of the subsequent year. During their first match upon their return, Cronje made his test debut and eventually became the team's captain in 1993, a position he held until 2000.
Despite his achievements and contributions to the sport, Cronje's reputation took a hit when he was involved in a scandal. In 2000, he was banned from cricket after admitting to accepting money from unlicensed bookmakers in exchange for insider information and match-fixing. However, even in the aftermath of his transgressions, the public's opinion of him remained largely positive. Indeed, in a national poll conducted in 2004, he was ranked as the 11th greatest South African of all time.
It is worth noting that Cronje was not the first cricketer to be tempted by financial gains and led astray from the path of integrity. Nevertheless, his stature as a South African hero endured despite those unfortunate events.
No goodness comes from greed
Gordon Gekko famously stated, "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good." However, for Cronje, this sentiment did not hold true. During his testimony at the King Commission, the investigation into cricket match-fixing following his exposed wrongdoing in 2000, Cronje explained his perspective.
Cronje admitted, "Driven by greed and stupidity and the lure of easy money, I was increasingly pushed to manipulate results and found I had got into something from which it was very difficult to get out.”
So, how did Cronje reach this point? The journey began five years before his emotional confession in a Cape Town courtroom.
In January 1995, prior to a one-day international (ODI) match against Pakistan, Cronje was offered $10,000 to intentionally lose the game. He declined the offer, but his interest was piqued a year later.
Before South Africa's third test in India in 1996, Cronje was introduced to Mukesh Gupta, a bookmaker, by Mohammad Azharuddin, an Indian middle-order batsman who was later banned for life. Gupta, also known as 'MK,' provided Cronje with $30,000 to convince his team to deliberately lose wickets on the final day and ultimately lose the match. Though Cronje didn't convey the offer to his team, he kept the money.
Since his team had lost the match anyway, Cronje reasoned, "I had effectively received money for doing nothing and I rationalised to myself that this was somehow acceptable because I had not actually done anything."
Whether the consequences were harmful or not, Cronje had fallen into the clutches of a dishonest bookmaker, and it was clear that this wouldn't be an isolated incident.
Moving on to the notorious final test against England, held at Centurion in January 2000. At that point, South Africa had a 2-0 lead in the series, and the match had been heavily affected by rain. The outcome on the last day was already predetermined, and it held little significance. Starting from the first day, the home team had a score of 155/6, and England had extremely slim odds of winning at +1600.
Cronje proposed an interesting idea to make the match more competitive by setting a target for England to chase. To do this, he became the first and only international captain to give up an entire inning.
The English team was required to achieve a total of 249 runs to secure victory, and they accomplished this task.
Getting Caught
After the England series, South Africa travelled to India. While on the tour, Cronje accepted a mobile phone as a gift, which led to him receiving over 50 calls and text messages daily. Unbeknownst to him, some of these conversations were being secretly recorded.
One of the callers was Sanjay Chawla, an Indian bookmaker who was being monitored by the Delhi police. The police were investigating threats against a local businessman and were not initially looking into match-fixing. However, they stumbled upon evidence of cricket corruption during their investigation.
The last match of the tour was an ODI, and South Africa had already lost the series. This situation was similar to previous matches that were considered inconsequential and susceptible to match-fixing.
Cronje admitted, "I was under intense pressure to produce certain outcomes. My attempts to string Sanjay along were no longer effective. On the morning of the fifth one-day match in Nagpur, Sanjay phoned me and urged me to go ahead with fixing the match. And I gave in."
Cronje cooperated with Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams to underperform. Both cricket players accepted $15,000 each. Gibbs was supposed to score fewer than 20 runs, but he ended up scoring 74. Williams was expected to bowl poorly, but due to an injury, he only bowled 11 deliveries.
In a later released phone call with Chawla, Cronje mentioned, "Financially, the guys want 25. They want 25 each." Cronje not only dragged his teammates into the scandal but also took a personal cut from their illicit gains.
With the police possessing recordings of conversations that set up the scheme, the subsequent events were inevitable.
On April 7th, 2000, Cronje, the former captain of South Africa's cricket team, was accused by the Delhi police of manipulating the outcomes of the team's one-day international matches against India. He strongly denied the accusation and held a press conference two days later.
During the conference, Cronje clarified that he had never received any money during the one-day international series in India. He emphasised that he had never discussed throwing a game with any team member. He suggested that checking his cash and bank accounts would confirm his innocence, as he had not received any money.
Subsequently, it was discovered that Cronje had more than 70 bank accounts in the Cayman Islands. This revelation weakened his defence, leading him to confess to his involvement two days later. However, he stated that he had only received $15,000 for providing information and predictions, not for match-fixing, during his time in India.
In reality, Cronje's involvement was much more extensive. Two months later, during the King Commission inquiry, Cronje read a 22-page statement revealing further details about his corrupt activities.
Consequently, in October 2000, the United Cricket Board of South Africa imposed a lifelong ban on Cronje. Sadly, less than two years later, Cronje died in a tragic plane crash caused by inclement weather. Given his association with questionable individuals, foul play was initially suspected. However, a 2006 inquest into his death concluded that pilot negligence was the cause of the crash. Regardless of the truth, this unfortunate chapter in cricket history reached a shocking conclusion.