The King Commission Interim Report

Furthermore Cronjé testified that Sanjay and Cassim were becoming increasingly upset because Cronjé had not delivered and they had been losing more and more money. Cassim denied this too. Indeed on a number of occasions in his evidence Cronjé regarded Sanjay and Cassim as co-participants rather than Cassim as an intermediary or facilitator.

Cassim destroyed a pre-paid cellphone card which he used to make calls to Sanjay and receive calls from him on the day Cronjé's revelations were made public because he said, he became scared and was afraid that Sanjay was going to call him on that number; he did not however concede that he was trying to destroy evidence.

Cassim described himself and Cronjé as very close friends. Cronjé did not at all go that far. Cassim made innumerable telephone calls to Cronjé in late January 2000 during the Triangular series between South Africa, England and Zimbabwe.

Thus he made on
26 Jan: 6 calls (one just before midnight)
27 Jan: 5 calls (one of 3,5 minutes)
29 Jan: 16 calls, the last of which at 23h46
30 Jan: 28 calls
31 Jan: 13 calls (the day Cronjé and Sanjay met?)
5 Feb: 12 calls (one at 00h35)

He sought to explain this away by saying that he telephones people "just to get through to them" and that if he can't get through to a person he becomes very agitated and can telephone up to 10 times in 20 minutes.

According to Cassim, Cronjé phoned him after the "storm had broken" and told him not to say anything.

Cassim in the course of distancing himself from the Sanjay - Cronjé dealings, told the Commission that he did not bet or wager on cricket or any other activity and that he had only done so once in his life, as a young man, when he had bet on a horse. This hardly ties in with his comment to Cronjé after the Centurion test that he, Cassim could have made some money if he had known that the final day of the test would probably produce a win/lose result. Cassim said he was only joking; Cronjé apparently did not take it up that way; he responded by saying to Cassim "kom praat" (come and talk).

Cassim also showed up in Sharjah, Dubai, after the Indian tour, in March 2000. He contacted Cronjé indicating that Sanjay wanted to resume contact with him, as Cronjé put it, "… along the same lines as in India." Cronjé continued "I had by now developed sufficient resolve to put it all behind me, and told him that I was not interested." One must assume that Sanjay did not realise that Cronjé had been spinning him along.

It would also appear that Cassim was more closely connected to Sanjay's betting activities than he, Cassim, is prepared to admit. Cronjé opined that Cassim knew that Sanjay was putting money on matches and that he knew that Cronjé was going to "try and assist" him.

The Tests in India

Pieter Strydom was first selected to play for South Africa in the summer of 1999/2000. He played in the Centurion Test referred to supra. On the morning of the 5th day of the Test, after the decision had been taken for South Africa to declare, Cronjé asked him to arrange to place a R50, 00 bet on South Africa winning. Strydom tried but was unable to place the bet. In his signed statement dated 9 June 2000, Strydom says that Cronjé approached him regarding a bet that the game would produce a result.

Strydom was also chosen to represent his country in the First Test against India at Mumbai. The day before the game Cronjé called him up to his room. Strydom estimated that the discussion took 5 to 10 minutes.

Cronjé, in a "very lighthearted manner" said to Strydom that he could get R70 000, 00 if South Africa went out for less than 250 runs. Strydom declined the offer but took it seriously enough to say that if he had played 80 or 90 tests he would have "tried to think about it now".

In other words Strydom was not prepared to risk his career at its inception. Cronjé did not pressurize Strydom but later that day Cronjé nudged Strydom as they walked past each other and again lightheartedly said "Hey, how about 140?" (i.e. R140 000, 00) which Strydom declined. In fact South Africa did go out for less than 250 and Strydom went to Cronjé after the game and said that they could have made a lot of money.

Cronjé approached certain of his teammates a few days later, shortly before the 2nd Test at Bangalore. Lance Klusener, Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis were together in the room shared by the latter two. They were watching a video, having just consumed a quantity of pasta. Cronjé came into the room; they chatted and "in passing, jokingly" (according to Klusener) Cronjé told them there had been an offer and were they interested. Jacques Kallis also thought at the time that Cronjé was joking. Mark Boucher is to similar effect. It is apparent from their recollection that there were initially other members of the team in the room and that it was only when they had left that Cronjé mentioned, "in a joking way" that he had been approached and he enquired of the three whether they were keen to "throw a game for money". The suggestion was rejected out of hand.

What is remarkable about these approaches by Cronjé to his teammates is that although Cronjé did not in fact, so he says, approach Gibbs or Bojé (he approached Strydom unsuccessfully), when he was asked by Sanjay to approach more players he did so; he spoke to Klusener, Kallis and Boucher. Cronjé was asked by Adv. Brendon Manca, Counsel for the UCB, why if his intention was only to string Sanjay along, he bothered to speak to Klusener, Kallis and Boucher; he could have just mentioned their names to Sanjay; he would not have known if Cronjé had spoken to them or not.

Cronjé's response does not answer Adv. Manca's question. He said:
"That is exactly my point as well, is that I had this man on me all the time, I had him nagging all the time, and I didn't want to involve the other players. And pushed by Sanjay, I mentioned it to the other players and I said to them that, "There's this man nagging at me, what do you guys think?', and they just told me no straight away."

There is a common thread to these events which is shared by others where Cronjé sought to involve his teammates in match-fixing or related matters and that is that the initial approach is made jocularly. It seems that this was Cronjé's modus operandi. He would sound out his colleagues, in a way which would enable him to say later, if the need arose, that he had only been joking. Herschelle Gibbs also testified that he was approached (in connection with the 5th ODI on 19 March 2000) by Cronjé with a "huge grin on his face". In fact Cronjé said in evidence that he felt shamed by Strydom saying that he wanted to do his best for his country and thereafter "tried to pass off the whole incident as a joke".

The ODIs in India (9 - 19 March 2000)

The tests in India were followed by a series of ODIs. The first of these was played at Cochin on 9 March 2000. Cronjé and Sanjay were in contact with each other; Cronjé told the latter that he thought he "could do something" in this match, "thinking that if we could get the match out of the way that might satisfy "them"" (a reference presumably to Sanjay and Cassim).

Cronjé had in mind "forecasting which way the match would go, looking at the pitch and conditions". Sanjay, according to Cronjé, was adamant that this i.e. what Cronjé had suggested, could not be done alone - that must have been a reference to Cronjé's offer to forecast the outcome of the match. Cronjé accordingly suggested that he would speak to some of the other players; Cronjé testified that he had no intention of doing this and did not do so.

Cronjé testified that in order to be able to contrive a result i.e. fix a match, it was necessary to have the co-operation of other players, perhaps 4 or 5 of them. That is undoubtedly so. One must not however lose sight of the fact that one such player must necessarily be the captain.

The captain has a strong hand in the selection of the team; he makes the decision whether to bat or field in the event that he wins the toss. He decides on such matters as when to declare, the batting order, the bowling structure i.e. who bowls, from what end, when and for how long; he determines the field placing (in consultation with the bowler and sometimes others) but the decision is his and he obviously controls and can manipulate his own batting and bowling. It is no exaggeration to say that the participation of the captain is indispensable; it is a sine qua non.

On the morning of the match Cronjé received a telephone call urging him to go ahead (with the plan). Cronjé told them (Sanjay and Cassim) that South Africa would lose. Cronjé testified that on the morning of the match the names he mentioned of players who would be complicit in the match-fixing were in addition to himself, Gibbs, Bojé, Hayward and Williams and further said that the score would be kept under 250 and that they would try and lose the game.

In the result South Africa scored just over 300 runs and Sanjay was upset that this had happened. Cronjé said to Sanjay that he must keep his side of the bargain and "we" will keep "our" side of the bargain.

The 2nd ODI was played at Jamshedpur on 12 March 2000. Sanjay again telephoned Cronjé wanting more than just information, i.e. wanting an actual influencing of the result. Cronjé made (he said "fabricated") the excuse that he could not get the cooperation of his teammates because they had not been paid i.e. for previous cooperation. Sanjay's response was to tell Cronjé not to worry "we've got an undertaking" and to remind him that he had a deposit (i.e. the money received in Durban) and to say that he was going to transfer funds to Cronjé's bank account in London. Cronjé testified that he had not to date taken the trouble to ascertain if the funds had indeed been transferred as Sanjay had undertaken.

Cronjé explained that he was simply playing Sanjay along, that he had no intention of cooperating and did not do so and that he never approached any of his teammates in this connection.

Cronjé further testified that for this match and the 3rd and 4th ODI's which followed he was really only forecasting what "I thought would happen as I wanted to win the series". Cronjé said that he received no money for this and that he gave of his best throughout.

The 5th and final ODI of the series was played at Nagpur on 19 March 2000. At that stage India were 3 - 1 up - South Africa had lost the series. Sanjay again approached Cronjé who "gave in" and agreed to speak to some of the players. This was the night before the match. Cronjé also said that if India bat first, "we will try to give them more than 250 runs" and if South Africa was to bat first "we will try to keep it under 240, but if we do get 270, then the deal is still on".

The two conversed on the morning of the game. Cronjé required $140,000 for "everybody"; this included $25,000 for each of Gibbs and Williams who had agreed to go along with the scheme. The next morning Cronjé approached these two players and offered each of them $15,000 for his cooperation. Cronjé, who had already agreed with Sanjay that each would be paid the larger amount, said to them that he would see what he could get for them and try and "bump up" i.e. increase their remuneration. Cronjé conceded that "maybe" he was "trying to cut something" for himself in misleading his teammates in this way. Cronjé also explained that although the amount had been spoken about, he didn't know (i.e. wasn't sure) that an agreement had been reached.

Cronjé had approached Gibbs and Williams and secured their participation; Gibbs was to go out for less than 20 runs and Williams was to concede in excess of 50 runs in his permitted 10 overs.

In the result Gibbs found the wicket to his liking, hit fours off the first 2 balls he faced and went on to make 74 off 53 balls before being run out. In his own words he "batted like a steam train". On the 5th ball of his second over, (his tally was 1 for 11 - the wicket of Ganguly) Williams injured himself and was unable to bowl any further. South Africa made 320/7 and beat India by 10 runs. Obviously the deal was off.

Cronjé testified:
"MR CRONJé: Sanjay was staying in the same hotel as what we were staying in Cochin and as I said in my affidavit, I was trying to avoid any telephonic conversation with him the night before, but the morning of the match, I was reminded that he would like to speak to me. I went downstairs to breakfast, had breakfast, wanted to stay away from him, but on the way out, I picked up the telephone at reception, phoned his room and said "yes, it is okay, we can go ahead". I rammed off five or six names, I think it was five names and said that we will keep the score under about 250 and that we will try and lose the game. That is what I said to Sanjay.

COMMISSIONER: That is before the game. Was there any further discussion with him about Cochin, the game, either during the game or after the game?

MR CRONJé: The night that I got back to the hotel, Sanjay called me and was obviously not very happy with me because South Africa scored 301/3 instead of less than 250. The reason why we scored more is because I didn't in fact speak to any of the players and none of the players were aware that there is anything on the cards.

COMMISSIONER: You say Sanjay was not happy because you hadn't fulfilled your undertaking to him? Was there any discussion of any of the players being dissatisfied, was there any monetary sums that would - allegedly owing, can you tell me?

MR CRONJé: The night after I got back to the hotel, I just said to Sanjay that he must keep his side of the bargain, then we will keep our side of the bargain.

But we didn't really specifically go into detail, he was just very cross with me that we didn't score less than 250 as I led him to believe that we would do. During the following game at Jamshapur (sic), he phoned me again and not only wanting to get information, but wanting to actually influence the result and the excuse that I used in this instance was that I won't be able to get to any of the players, because they are upset with me because they have not been financially paid, using that as an excuse to keep him away from me.

COMMISSIONER: You say you told him that the players were cross with you because they hadn't been financially paid, were numbers mentioned, any amount, any figures?

MR CRONJé: I am not hundred percent sure what the figures were that were discussed, I am actually not even sure whether numbers were discussed before the Cochin game, as it was done in such a rush.

COMMISSIONER: When you mentioned this to Sanjay, did he undertake to make amends, to make any money available?

MR CRONJé: Sanjay said to me "not to worry, we've got an undertaking, he has given me a deposit as well" and he is also going to transfer some funds to my account in London, "not to worry", he said "not to worry, we will sort out the others as well".

Cronjé also said in answer to Adv. Manca that he thought that the amount that Sanjay and he discussed was "around $100,000 if we were to lose a match. He gave this money (i.e. $10,000) to me as a deposit in order to, if I have a change of mind, speak to some of the other players. Use it to influence players."

Cronjé said he thought the $10,000 was a deposit because he knew there was going to be a future opportunity.

In summary, the evidence discloses that Cronjé had spoken to Sanjay concerning the match against Zimbabwe at Durban (on 2 January 2000); Sanjay wanted a negative result in his favour in order to make some money - Cronjé said he would not cooperate unless SA was assured of a place in the final. Cronjé suggested to Sanjay that in that event there may be a possibility of SA deliberately losing that game or a game in the future.

The Cochin game; Sanjay wanted SA to lose. Cronjé said he'd go along with that; he would speak to other players; he phoned Sanjay on the morning of the game and said that there were certain players involved; in fact, Cronjé said in evidence that was not true. Throwing the game was definitely spoken about between Cronjé and Sanjay; Cronjé definitely gave Sanjay that impression, he definitely suggested to Sanjay that "we will do that" (emphasis supplied) but he said in evidence that he was merely spinning Sanjay along to try and satisfy him. Cronjé testified that he thought that if after one game he could get Sanjay off his back he could get rid of him.

Cronjé also said that the reason for telling Sanjay that he was prepared to "throw" a game if South Africa was assured of a place in the final was that he tried to give Sanjay "a fair chance on a game". It was apparent to Cronjé from his first meeting with Sanjay that merely supplying him with information would not be sufficient for Sanjay who wanted Cronjé to lose matches and to get other players to assist him in this. It was on this basis that Cronjé took Sanjay's money. In fact Sanjay said he needed a match where there was a certainty of South Africa losing; Sanjay told Cronjé there would be a further sum of money coming to Cronjé if he could give Sanjay the "right" result; in other words the initial sum was a deposit and if Cronjé "delivered" there would be more.

These facts are reiterated with the thought that they are not readily reconcilable with the notion of Cronjé spinning Sanjay along.

Term of reference A3 (and the prelude thereto)

This term of reference is to a particular incident, which concerns a proposal made to the South African cricket team during its tour to India in 1996 that it "throw" i.e. deliberately lose a match.

Sunil had befriended Cronjé and some other members of the team in Sharjah in 1996. Later that same year during the tour to India, Sunil approached Cronjé and asked him if he was interested in match fixing. According to Cronjé he said he was not; no offers or financial proposals were received form Sunil. Cronjé was not prepared to describe Sunil's intervention as an "approach" but rather as a casual conversation; Sunil had said that if at any time in the future or on the current tour Cronjé had "any desire to make some money", he was to contact him.

Sunil also contacted Cronjé during the 2000 tour to India; they spoke several times, Sunil using the mobile-phone number given to Cronjé by Sanjay. Cronjé had maintained his association with Sunil, only speaking with him, however, when Cronjé was in India. Although at their first meeting in 1996 Sunil had asked Cronjé if he was interested in match fixing, the subsequent conversations were not concerned with this topic. Sunil, the aspirant match fixer, also turned up in Sharjah, asking Cronjé for information and "news on the team"; Cronjé gave him nothing out of the ordinary and did not receive payment or the offer thereof.

Both in 1996 and again in 2000 Sunil took Cronjé out to dinner and broached the subject of match fixing after a few drinks.

Cronjé admitted that at Sharjah he did give Sunil "the odd bit of information and news on the team … nothing out of the ordinary"; he said that this information "would have been handy to him if he wanted to make a bet on a game" but that he had received no money in return.

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Mail Cricket Editor