Obsession for money behind downfall of tortured soul Hansie Cronje in a scandal that rocked world

Who would have thought South African captain Hansie Cronje’s fondness of the occasional freebie would ultimately destroy him in a scandal that would shake world cricket to its very core, writes Robert Craddock.

South African cricketer Hansie Cronje crying after testifying at the King Commission of Inquiry into cricket match fixing in Cape Town in 2000.

It is 20 years this month since South African captain Hansie Cronje was outed as a match fixer by an Indian police investigation in one of the most dramatic events in cricket history.

The story took all sorts of extraordinary twists and had the ingredients of a real-life police drama … dirty money, shady deals, angels turned villains, stringent denials and tearful confessions.

It finished with Cronje being banned for life and then tragically losing his life in a plane crash in 2002.

Steve Waugh’s Australian 50-over team flew into the middle of the match-fixing storm when they arrived in South Africa for a three-match series a couple of days after Indian police said they had secret tapes of Cronje talking to a bookmaker about how he and three teammates would conspire to throw a game.

Robert Craddock went to South Africa with Waugh’s tourists intending to stay nine days but spent two months investigating the pin-up boy who became a pariah. Here is an inside look at the drama which rocked the cricket world.

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Whether it be corrupting a cricket game or ordering a $5 plate of garlic bread, Hansie Cronje knew the value of a deal and a dollar.

“This isn’t right, I’m not paying,’’ he once said after perusing a hotel restaurant bill which a teammate suggested they split equally among the group.

“I didn’t have a starter and I didn’t have the garlic bread.”

But within minutes he would be the embodiment of humour (as long as he wasn’t the brunt of it), kindness and empathy, displaying care and strong leadership.

There is, in a nutshell, the complex, fluctuating, conflicted and tortured soul of the former South African cricket captain who, 20 years ago, was exposed as the match fixer after the Delhi police taped him in lengthy conversations with illegal bookmaker Sanjeev Chawla about claims that he had hired two players, batsman Herschelle Gibbs and fast bowler Henry Williams, to underperform in a 50-over game in India.

Hansie Cronje during the match-fixing allegations inquiry in Cape Town in 2000.

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Both were found guilty, fined and given short bans. Spinners Pieter Strydom and Nicky Boje were mentioned but denied any involvement and were found not guilty.

News of the tapes broke at a Friday police press conference in Delhi which rocked the sporting world.

God-fearing, non-gambling, straight-laced Hansie, voted for six years in a row as one of South Africa’s favourite five personalities, was being accused of being a cheat.

In time the manipulative, selfish side of Cronje’s personality was sadly exposed.

MONEY LUST

Most professional sportsmen love money but barely any will admit it.

Cronje, however, was different, once telling teammates “I love money — it’s the key to everything’’.

He especially loved the sight and touch of it. Bookmakers who lured him into their web sensed this and would literally show him the money and let him count it. Cronje rarely missed a free ride, like the freebie which ended up destroying his life.

Just before a tour of India in 2000, Chawla gave Cronje a mobile phone in a box crammed with US dollars and said he could call anyone for any reason so long as the shady bookie could call him.

Cronje crying after testifying during the inquiry.

Cronje’s teammates cheered when he told them they also could use the phone but he didn’t know that Delhi police were monitoring the phone, tracing another extortion attempt without even knowing who was using it.

They taped 14 hours of phone conversations, including Cronje having extensive chats with Chawla about rigging matches.

THE EARTHQUAKER

When the Delhi police had a press conference to tell the world they had caught Cronje rigging matches, South African officials were outraged — not at Cronje but the police.

The South African Cricket Board was in such a state of panic it put out a press release with chief executive Dr Ali Bacher saying the claims were “rubbish,’’ even before they had talked to him.

Bacher said Cronje was regarded for his “unquestionable honesty and integrity’’.

When a group of Australian journalists touched down in South Africa a few days later we met with Bacher, who was in no mood to contemplate the claims could be true.

When a journalist opened a press conference by asking Bacher “if Hansie’s denials are true’’ Bacher cut the question off and fired back with “what do you mean ‘if’?’’

When Cronje fessed up, Bacher was shattered and the scars never truly healed. I spoke to him a decade later near the end of his administrative career and mentioned that all things considered, he had done a solid job.

He replied “yes, but there will always be Hansie Cronje … I’m not sure I will ever get over it’’ as his voice trailed off.

South African president Nelson Mandela receives a cricket bat from Cronje during the second Test between South Africa and India at Newlands in 1997.

South Africa’s newspapers defended Cronje and made out the Indian police were a Keystone cops operation after the story broke.

Peers were also shocked. Ian Healy was in central Australia and started penning a letter of support to Cronje after the initial accusations … but it was never sent as small cracks appeared in Cronje’s story.

One South African journalist who refused to be swayed by public opinion was Cape Town’s Neil Manthorp.

On the Friday afternoon the scandal broke I rang him and initially he said “I would be surprised if there is anything in it’’. But soon after he changed his mind after spending three hours phoning the four accused, who refused to answer their phones.

“If you were innocent wouldn’t you be shouting it from the roof tops?’’ Manthorp told me.

THE ROAD DEATH

One of the lesser known, yet major, incidents of Cronje’s career which many believe was responsible for much of his inner unrest was the night he accidentally killed a young black child on a dark road outside Durban.

He could have easily lost his own life when he stopped and rushed to the child’s aid. For a while his attention was solely on the child but when he looked up, he saw a group of men with spears.

The villagers were understandably agitated but spared Cronje from a revenge assault.

But the incident was known to have severely affected Cronje, who had nightmares for years and turned to his church for salvation. It did not destroy him but it added to his unbalanced mindset.

He subsequently came on a tour of Australia where he claimed he would not touch a drop of alcohol. I saw him admirably resist having a drop for four hours one night during a barbecue in Brisbane yet within weeks, it was known that he would occasionally binge drink in his hotel room in private.

THE BIG LIE

The weird thing about Cronje was that even though he told a truckload of lies, he was terrible at telling them.

That’s why when he finally sat down at the tea break in a match at Durban to talk about the Indian police tapes, he sounded like Bill Clinton saying “I did not inhale’’.

He categorically stated he did not take money from a bookie in India, because he actually took it in South Africa.

He stated he had never thrown a match for his country, because he generally got his money from getting players to score under a certain number. Technically it was spot-fixing rather than match-fixing.

Allan Border tosses the coin with Cronje before the third Test at the Adelaide Oval in 1994.

All the Australia press were at that conference and, before entering it, we had told Australian captain Steve Waugh that it was time for Cronje to face some tough questions.

The next morning as we walked past Australian training, Waugh, who watched the conference on television, called out “hey, what happened to all your hard questions?’’ He was right. We wimped out.

Cronje, a master manipulator, had such a mesmerising presence that his “this is all just so silly’’ demeanour undermined our resolve.

THE SLIP UP

The thing about wearing a mask is that at some point it will slip off and Cronje, after days of confusion, lies and emphatic denials, let his slide at a moment no-one expected.

The small group of Australian journalists on tour had been dealing closely with no-nonsense South Africa media woman Bronwyn Wilkinson who said to us privately: “Hansie has told me he is completely innocent and I have taken his word and given him 100 per cent support … but if I find out he is lying that’s it. Game over. I’ll just walk over and tell you straight away and you can write it’’.

Cronje was a fine cricketer and a respected captain throughout the world.

After that press conference and Cronje’s meeting with high-ranking officials, Wilkinson came and sat with the Australian media and said: “I’m officially worried.’’

She told us she was walking to the car park with Cronje, who was just about to drive away, when she said to him: “I might get Allan Donald and Pollock to talk at a press conference tomorrow to give you some support.’’

Cronje nonchalantly replied “good choice – they knew nothing about it’’ before he looked up at Wilkinson to see if she had realised the implications of the loose line.

She had.

CONFESSION

Finally, wracked with guilt and unable to keep up the facade of an innocent man being the victim of a twisted plot, Cronje cracked.

The pressure had become unbearable. Lance Klusener, unmasked by the Delhi police as the whistleblower, refused to speak to Cronje at a double wicket competition in Cape Town and reportedly told teammates “the fun has gone out of the game … the only guys who give a f--- any more are Kallis and Boucher’’.

Cronje phoned South African Cricket union president Percy Sonn at 3am to make a partial confession of his dealings with Indian bookies and the irony was if he had never opened his mouth, he might never have been caught.

The wreckage of the fatal plane crash involving Cronje.

Only the tapes locked in a Delhi police station could truly convict him and the tapes have never been released. But finally, after days of denial, Cronje rolled over on his bed in Duban’s Elangani Holiday Inn and cried as he confessed his guilt.

I made a visit to his residence in Fancourt with photographer Anne Laing, who took photos of him against his wishes before he agreed to pose for some.

“I said sorry when I made a mistake and so should you,’’ Cronje said to Laing.

He sounded persuasive. He always did.