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SA '96 team meeting in Bombay to be probed

A 1996 team meeting at which South African players were allegedly offered 250,000 dollars to lose a game against India will be investigated by the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCB), its chief said on Tuesday.

Several players who were on the 1996-97 tour of India have confirmed an offer was conveyed to the team by the captain, Hansie Cronje, who was sacked last week after admitting that he took money from an Indian businessman before South Africa's recent tour of India.

"I will be asking each and every one of our contracted players who were on the 1996-97 tour to tell me exactly what happened,'' said UCB managing director Ali Bacher.

Six of the players who have signed new two-year contracts with the UCB were on the tour - Gary Kirsten, Nicky Boje, Daryll Cullinan, Herschelle Gibbs, Lance Klusener and Jonty Rhodes.

Cronje revealed the offer in a newspaper interview in 1998. He claimed he had not taken the offer seriously but had raised it at a team meeting.

According to Cronje, the team "basically laughed it off" and resolved they would never be party to match-fixing.

Players who were at the meeting have contradicted Cronje's version, led by former wicketkeeper Dave Richardson who said it took three team meetings before the offer was rejected and that the team had been advised to "sleep on it'' before making a decision.

Richardson said the players were unhappy that the match, a benefit game for former Indian player Mohinder Amarnath, had been upgraded to an official international. The match had been scheduled at the end of a demanding tour.

"No-one really wanted to play,'' said Richardson, who himself withdrew from the game because of illness.

Richardson said the team finally rejected the offer to fix the game when Andrew Hudson, who has subsequently retired, voiced strong opposition to the proposal.

The Star, a Johannesburg newspaper, reported on Tuesday that Hudson said: "We were each offered 20,000 dollars - so the amount of 250,000 dollars seems to be correct.''

Cronje, according to Hudson, broached the subject during a team meeting.

"He (Cronje) wanted everyone to know what was going on. The offer was passed on to the team. That's when we were told how much was on offer.''

Hudson confirmed that there were three meetings. After the first, the players were asked to "sleep on it,'' then a second and a third, after which Hudson told them it was not the right thing to do. Hudson confirmed that he had advised: "It's bigger than you think. This could open a whole can of worms. We can't have anything to do with the offer.''

However, the players were interested in it at the time because "everyone was inquisitive about what was going on." He added: "Ideally it should have been thrown out at the first instance.''

Former Test cricketer Brian McMillan confirmed the incident but said the idea was thrown out within 10 minutes. "Cronje made no attempts to influence the team's decision," he said.

Former South African offspinner Pat Symcox agreed that the players were curious to know what was going on. "It was our first Test tour of India and we were breaking new ground. We had heard about match-fixing and bookmakers but it was the first time it involved us.

"I can only remember two meetings. When Hansie raised the issue it was a pretty informal meeting and we laughed about it but Hansie did say we should think about it. The next time we got together Andrew said he wanted no part of it and that was the end of it.''

Bob Woolmer, then the South African coach, said: "I'd thought that the offer was dismissed after one meeting. My stance was that anyone even thinking about taking the money should be thrown out.''

India won the match by 83 runs against a team weakened by injury and illness.