Hyderabad: It was a black day in the history of the game as on this day 20 years ago, Hansie Cronje was sacked from the position of South Africa skipper during one of cricket's most shameful episodes.
Golden boy of South African cricket and one of international cricket's role model Hansie Cronje’s towering stature in the sport in no time diminished to being one of a match fixer.
On April 7, Delhi police had charged Cronje with fixing the one-day matches played against India in March, which India won 3-2. Cronje was said to be in constant touch with an Indian bookie named Sanjay Chawla.
After initially denying the charges, Cronje accepted to have provided information regarding forecast to the bookie during the ODI series in India. Players like Pat Symcox and Herschelle Gibbs testified before The King Commission that their skipper had asked them to get involved in corrupt activities in the past.
Cronje then confessed to have taken bribes since 1996 while accusing his Indian counterpart Mohammad Azharuddin of introducing him to an Indian bookie. Cronje said that the bookie had offered him to throw a Test match during South Africa's tour of India in 1996.
Manoj Prabhakar, Ajay Jadeja and Ajay Sharma were later found guilty of being in touch with Indian bookies and the trio were handed bans.
Cronje was later handed a life-ban for his role in match fixing and in a matter of few days all the reputation that he had built was ripped to tatters. From being a messiah of South African cricket to becoming a ‘villain’, the many laurels that he had earned were irreparably tarnished by the soot and stain of the murkiest association with bookmakers and his insatiable love for money.
