NEWS
SCHEDULES
COLUMNS
PREVIOUS TOURS
OTHER SPORTS
STATISTICS
INTERVIEWS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Banjo tunes up for song sung true

In a short while from now, the Judge Edwin King Commission will resume its hearings into the match-fixing scandal revolving around deposed captain Hansie Cronje. And first up on Monday is one of the star witnesses -- Hamid 'Banjo' Cassim who, depending on who you ask, is either a naive supplier of sweets to players, or the manipulator who, behind the scenes, puts players and bookies together.

"I am friendly with all the players, I have been friendly with them for years, but I wasn't involved in betting or match-fixing. I wouldn't even know how to place a bet." Thus speaks Cassim.

If available evidence is any indication, though, Cassim's 'friendship' with Hansie Cronje would make Damon and Pythias sound tame stuff. A list of his telephone conversations, produced by the investigation team assisting the commission, lists over 180 calls made by Cassim to Cronje -- fully 146 of them during the triangular one day series involving England, Zimbabwe and South Africa that is the subject of much debate.

Friendship is one thing, but when one person phones another 27 times in one day (in this case, Cassim called Cronje that many times on January 30), eyebrows are going to be raised, and questions asked. Questions -- hard ones -- are in fact expected to be asked of Cassim when he appears on the stand today.

You will recall that as per Cronje's testimony, it was during this series that Cassim took the then SA skipper to a hotel room to meet Sanjay Chawla, and it was at this meeting that the prospect of SA tanking a game for money was negotiated. Thus, the number of calls made by Cassim to Cronje during this period assumes enormous significance.

During the period in question, there were also 29 calls made by Sanjeev Chawla to Cassim.

For his part, Cassim has acknowledged performing the introductions, but claims that he is unaware of what transpired between Chawla and Cronje thereafter.

The records further show 33 calls made by Cassim, during this period, to batsman Darryl Cullinan -- who is scheduled to appear before the commission shortly, and who supposedly has 'hard evidence' implication Cronje in a fix.

The Betting Scandal: The full story