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Cronje ends cross examination in tears

Sacked South Africa cricket captain Hansie Cronje on Friday ended his evidence to the judge Edwin King match-fixing commission in tears, and with a promise to use his illicit gains to mend the harm he has done to the sport and the country.

"I hope I can put the money to good use to try to redress the wrongs I have done to my game and my country," said Cronje, who admitted taking money from bookmakers.

Cronje, who was described earlier this week by his psychiatrist as being clinically depressed, burst into tears as the panel of lawyers at the commission wrapped up their cross-examination and thanked the former captain for his cooperation. The 30-year-old's face crumpled as he was led out of the venue.

Earlier Judge King warned Cronje to come clean or face prosecution.

Cronje, sacked on April 11 after first denying, then admitting, taking money from bookmakers to influence matches, has been offered immunity from prosecution if King is satisfied that he had made full disclosure. King is due to hand his report and recommendations to President Thabo Mbeki by June 30.

Cronje admitted that he had tried to shortchange his teammates who were to receive amounts from a bookmaker to under perform during the tour to India earlier this year.

"Maybe I was trying to cut something for myself," Cronje said, when a discrepancy was pointed out between the amounts of money he apparently asked on behalf of the players and what he was seeking from bookmaker Sanjiv "Sanjay" Chawla during a one-day series in India in March.

King interjected: "Let's be realistic, that is what you were doing."

Cronje agreed that was possible.

Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams both testified earlier in the hearing that they had been offered 15,000 dollars to play badly.

On the transcript of a taped telephone recording, Cronje asked Sanjay for "25" for each player and "140" as a total amount for himself. He admitted the amounts referred to thousands of dollars.

Cronje told the inquiry last week he had accepted close to $100,000 in bribes from bookies over the past four years but had never actually fixed any matches. On Thursday he said there might have been another $30,000 extra.

Prosecutor Shamila Batohi, who tried on Thursday to get Cronje to admit the accuracy of transcripts of telephone conversations he is alleged to have had with a bookmaker identified only as Sanjay, abandoned the attempt on Friday.

"In all fairness to Mr Cronje I think we should keep away from the tapes," King told her, noting that the tapes were not to hand and it was clear there were inconsistencies in the transcripts.

Cronje told the commission that other players too could be involved in match-fixing, though he did not know who they could be.

But, "If they could get to me, they could get to anyone," he admitted, referring to bookmakers or match-fixers.

Lawyers for the United Cricket Board tried to get Cronje to name other international players involved in match-fixing. UCB lawyer Brendan Manca quizzed Cronje on his statement last week that former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin had introduced him in 1996 to Indian Mukesh Gupta, who Cronje said had twice given him money, totalling 80,000 dollars.

"Didn't you think it was strange that a person Mohammad Azharuddin had introduced you to had just handed you 30,000 dollars and asked you to fix a match?" asked Manca.

Cronje replied, "He could have been involved with Mr Gupta but I didn't for any reason think he was doing business with Mr Gupta at all."

He conceded later, "If he's the one who has introduced me then he can also do business with Mr Gupta."

However, he also said he didn't think that Azharuddhin was aware of the offer that Gupta made to him on that 1996 tour.

Agencies

Check out today's testimony