The holes in Hansie's argument

Paul Martin Cainer Southern Africa Correspondent for rediff.com

Finally, its out. The interim report into match-fixing and related matters has finally hit the streets, or to be more accurate on the Internet. The government of Africa chose, in consultation with the UCB, to place its words of wisdom on the world's most modern form of communication.

However, the report itself was couched in the old language of obfuscation and quaint outmoded terminology. Judge King didn't openly recommend whether Hansie Cronje, the sacked South African captain, should be granted immunity from prosecution. Nor did he openly state whether Cronje, in his opinion, was lying or telling the truth. However, reading between the lines it becomes clear that judge King is very far from satisfied with Cronje's performances thus far. He refers to Cronje's offers to teammates for playing badly in the first two tests in India this year. The judge noted that when Brendon Manca, counsel for the UCB, had asked Cronje why, if his intention was only to string bookmaker Sanjeev Chawla, he bothered to speak to lance Klusener, Kallis and Boucher, the Judge noted,"He could have just mentioned the names to Sanjay, he would not have known whether Cronje had spoken to them or not.

Cronje's reply was that,"I had this man on me all the time, I had him nagging all the time, and didn't want to involve the other players…..pushed by Sanjay, I mentioned it to them that there's this man nagging at me, what do you think? And they just told me no straightaway."

Analyzing this comment, Judge King remarked," This does not answer advocate Manca's question."

The judge infact detects a clear pattern to Cronje's approaches. He says Cronje deliberately would approach players in a joking manner, so that if his approach was rebuffed, he could make out it had not been serious.

The tenor of the judge's remarks indicates that he believes Cronje had a consistent long-term strategy of deception. From these comments its clear that Cronje is in deep judicial trouble.

He will appear again before the commission when it resumes on October 2, and will have to fill in the holes in his story-or else the final report will be even more damning.

Paul Martin Cainer is CEO, Live Africa News Networks

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