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'UCB was warned about Cronje 5 years ago'

Paran Balakrishnan in London

South Africa's top cricket bosses were warned five years ago that Hansie Cronje was unfit to lead the side.

John Blair, president of the Free State Board, Cronje's home territory, had warned that Cronje had a dangerously unstable personality and that "it will all end in tears", The Independent reported today.

Cronje was "susceptible under pressure to a degree of irrational behaviour that would not be compatible with the profile required of our national captain", according to Blair, now treasurer of the United Cricket Board of South Africa.

Blair's remarks were reported in an article by Ray White, who was president of the UCB until three months ago.

The pressures on the former South African captain increased after the retirement of coach Bob Woolmer and Peter Pollock, convenor of the selectors, according to White.

"Their retirement not only deprived Cronje of their advice and support, but also removed the mental and moral discipline that he has now been shown to have clearly required," the article says.

White, who knew Cronje extremely well, said a "flawed hero has been brought down by a weakness for money".

He added that Cronje had been unable to face "the enormous pressure that goes with the job of modern cricket captain. Few men in modern times have been able to handle it for long."

UCB chief executive Ali Bacher is criticised in the article for giving Cronje sweeping powers after Woolmer's departure. In addition, the cricket authorities are blamed for breaking promises to the captain during the run-up to the World Cup.

The article is largely sympathetic to Cronje though it is devastatingly critical of his personality.

White was forced to retire as UCB president after controversial remarks about the quota policy for black players.

The article has appeared days before the South African inquiry by Judge Edwin King into match-fixing. The inquiry was instituted after Cronje's admission that he accepted money from an Indian bookmaker.