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Still more to come

If it wasn’t for the fact that we probably expected too much from the Cronje testimony, we would have been shaking our heads in amazement. This is the first time that Cronje has formally admitted his role in match-fixing though he adds a funny little post-script that he still maintains that South Africa did not fix the results of cricket matches ! I suspect he is seeking refuge in semantics!

He was meeting bookies all the time, he was telling team-mates to under-perform, he was checking out the odds on a result in the Centurion game against England and he apologized to a bookie for the result not turning out the way he would have liked it. All this and more in this very short testimony. And yet, South Africa did not fix games? Dear, dear.

To me, the most interesting part of the testimony is that he was twice given a substantial amount of money, just to play his game. The phone calls demanding things started after that which seems to confirm a theory that money paid for weather and pitch conditions etc is merely a feeler; a bait to draw cricketers into deeper things. Cronje followed this path and that means others might have as well. This has implications for the Shane Warne / Mark Waugh affair because the first step in both cases was the same.

The Australian Cricket Board has now appointed an investigations expert and the cricket world would like to see a complete investigation into what actually happened with Waugh and Warne. Was there a second step? Was it a one-off flirtation or, like with Cronje, was there more? Ordinarily, you would trust people with their statements but that is a word that doesn’t mean too much these days. Remember too that the Australian Cricket Board sat over things for a very long time and were only forced to reveal as much has they did.

Cronje says he will not play cricket again. If I was Cronje, and I was promised full immunity for what I said, with the understanding that I would not play cricket again, I would buy that hook, line and sinker. I would not see a cricket bat again if I could go free so I don’t think anyone should get carried away by his statement that he will not play cricket again. The only person it has any implication for is Shaun Pollock for as the current captain he now has to decide whether he wants the job on a regular basis.

And of course, Cronje names Malik and Azhar. He doesn’t say that they fixed games but confirms that they introduced him to the people who did. I am afraid that clearly implies that these two were in contact with the concerned people, not just socially but, in what seems an appropriate word, professionally. Clearly the two cricketers involved will point to earlier inaccuracies in Cronje’s statements as a way out but both cricket Boards need to be very quick to get onto this. For the first time, an international cricketer, and a hitherto respected one, has named people and this is a big event.

I have absolutely no doubt that there is more to follow and that the cross-questioning will be a very difficult time for Cronje. For example, there is bound to be more on the exact nature of the offers made to Kallis and Klusener; the background to opening the bowling with Derek Crookes; whether Indian players were part of the deal in the second Test and indeed the one-dayers; the reason he initially targeted Gibbs and Williams…. But I think he will have to answer more questions about the Mandela Cup in 1995 and if anything is proved there about South Africa’s performance at the 1996 World Cup. And I suspect there will be a lot of heat on the Centurion Test for it is now known that he was looking at the odds.

I would like to see if Cronje, who everyone says is under a lot of stress, stands up to all this. His credibility is very low and his assertions in his testimony today will not be accepted as the final word. I would be very interested to see how he reacts and to see whether he names more players (he alludes to an offer to the Australian team in 1994, remember?). I must confess that I will be very surprised if he doesn’t.

Harsha Bhogle