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'Banjo' wants Indian cops to hand over tapes

Paul Martin Cainer in Cape Town

Johannesburg sweet-shop owner Hamid "Banjo" Cassim has called on the Indian police to hand over, to South African authorities investigating match-fixing, the tapes of cell-phone conversations between disgraced ex-captain Hansie Cronje and bookmaker Sanjay Chawla.

So far, the police in India have been content to merely publish selected extracts. The feeling in South Africa is that as and when the full transcripts are available, Cronje's return to the witness box becomes inevitable.

Interviewed after the he had finished his evidence to the King Commission, Cassim told Live Africa Network News: "I wish, and I categorically state, that South Africa get the tapes. It will definitely clear me." He insisted he was neither a "middle-man nor go-between nor bookie".

Balding and eccentric,Cassim tried hard to present himself as a devoted cricket and sports enthusiast who loved rubbing shoulders with the greats. He was especially in awe of Kapil Dev, who he would invite to visit his relative's shops and bask in the reflected glory. He had stated that he had a conversation with Cronje prior to the South Africa-England-Zimbabwe triangular series earlier this year.

That was something of a understatement -- similar perhaps to the statement by the Egyptian authorities that President Anwar Sadat had been shot in the hand during the Islamic extremists' assassination onslaught at a military parade on October 6 1981. That statement was true -- he was shot in the hand ... and the head, and the heart, and in most of his body. In this case, Cassim phoned Cronje once, and another 180-or-so times, during those three months.

Some of those calls were late at night before a match, when most players, especially the disciplined South Africans, would insist on rest and early nights, not nocturnal social chit-chat.

The King Commission investigator had managed to get hold of the list of cell-phone calls, both in and out. The revelation made Banjo lose the tune. He kept telling evidence-leader Shamila Batohi that his memory was poor because of the strain he's been under. Cassim said the 180 phone calls he made to Cronje in January, February and March showed his love of the sport. "It is my nature to phone all the players all the time," Cassim said. "I tried to keep in contact with all the players all the time."

A record of Cassim's phone calls showed that the Johannesburg shop owner also phoned Cronje's team mates Darryl Cullian 33 times, Lance Klusener 28 times, Hershelle Gibbs 14 times and Paul Adams 30 times. The same records show that Cronje made 11 calls to Cassim, and Gibbs made three.

Later, Cassim told Live Africa: "For the last nine months I have been going through a divorce." He also revealed that he continued to talk to South African players even after the Hansiegate scandal broke. "Hershelle Gibbs told me: 'Hamid, be strong'," he said.

Cassim had told Judge King on Monday that he saw London-based bookmaker Sanjay Chawla hand an envelope containing money to Cronje.

There had been a conversation for about 10 minutes relating to cricket, after which "they had talked about match forecasting, pitch conditions, team selections and the conditions on winning the toss," Cassim told the commission of inquiry into cricket match-fixing. "I then saw Sanjay take an envelope containing money and hand it to Mr Cronje. I was surprised that Cronje took it. Chawla said: 'Keep this and we'll talk later'."

The handover took place in a Durban hotel on January 31 on the eve of a limited-overs match between South Africa and Zimbabwe, Cassim said.

(Paul Martin is rediff.com's correspondent in South Africa. He is CEO and editor-in-chief of Live Africa and Sport Africa)

The Betting Scandal: The full story