M A I N   N E W S

Cronje’s volte-face on Azhar
CBI grills Azharuddin

CAPE TOWN, June 22 (PTI) — Sacked South African captain Hansie Cronje today said he did not believe Mohammad Azharuddin knew, while introducing him to Indian bookmaker Mukesh Gupta, that the latter was seeking to bribe him to lose a match in 1996 in India.

Cronje told the King Commission of Inquiry that “I thought that he just introduced me to someone who wanted to get into diamond dealing in South Africa.”

Cronje, whose naming of Azharuddin raised a storm in Indian cricket circles, said “I don’t believe Azharuddin knew what the conversation (with Gupta) was about.” He said he could only speculate that Azharuddin might have had an idea about it. The former South African skipper said though he considered Azharuddin as a good friend he never discussed with him his meeting with Gupta.

He said he accepted $ 30,000 from Gupta, who also runs a jewellery business in Delhi, to ensure that his side lost the third Test of the 1996 tour.

“I really did not understand why anyone would give me $ 30,000 for a match we were going to lose anyway,” he said.

AP adds: Cronje also confirmed he had relayed an offer from Gupta to the team of $ 200,000 to lose the last one-day international of the tour. Several senior players considered the offer, Cronje said, adding he was not totally sure who they were. The offer was rejected.

“I am not going to disclose the names of other players because that is going to put them in a bad light,” he said.

Cronje said he at the time saw nothing wrong with throwing a match the team did not want to play. The team had resented the scheduling of the match because several players were sick and others were exhausted.

Cronje also said Gupta had paid him $ 50,000 for match information during a tour by India to South Africa in 1996-97. $ 20,000 had also been deposited in his account, Cronje said, adding he thought Gupta might have made that deposit.

“Huge sums of money do go in and out of your account,” Cronje said. His monthly salary and allowances deposits could vary between 40,000 rand (about Rs 2.5 lakh) and 90,000 rand (about Rs 5.5 lakh), he said.

Earlier, Cronje said he had stayed clean for more than three years after his dealings with Gupta. In January this year, he was lured back by the prospect of earning easy cash.

The commission must present interim findings to President Thabo Mbeki by the end of the month.

AFP adds: On the second day of his cross-examination, State prosecutor Shamila Batohi asked Cronje which players had been prepared to give serious consideration to the bribe of $ 200,000 from an Indian gambler if the team lost a one-day international in Mumbai in 1996.

Cronje had passed the offer on to the team at a meeting.

He said three players — Daryll Cullinan, Derek Crookes and Andrew Hudson — had been strongly opposed to the offer and that “a bunch of young players just listened.”

He said the senior players in the meeting included Dave Richardson, Brian McMillan, Pat Symcox, Gary Kirsten and Fanie de Villiers.

He was not prepared to say, however, whether any of these players had spoken in favour of taking the money.

“It is like a selection meeting when someone usually plays devil’s advocate. It would be very unfair to say after the meeting who said what.”

Pressed by Ms Batohi, Cronje again refused to take names.

Commission head Judge Edwin King eventually said to the advocate: “You make the necessary deductions. You don’t need to press Mr Cronje.”

Earlier Cronje quipped that he should have taken the $ 200,000 bribe, offered by Indian jeweller Mukesh Gupta, because the South African team was likely to lose the match.

“I probably should have done it. I would have been a richer man today,” he said.

India won the match by 83 runs.

Reuters: Hansie Cronje admitted shame for his deeds but likened the greed that drove him to take bribes from bookmakers to an addiction to drink or tobacco.

“I have never been an alcoholic and I have never been addicted to nicotine, but I understand there are times when you give in to it,” he said on his second day under cross-examination at Judge Edwin King’s government inquiry into alleged match-fixing.

“At various times guilt made me realise what I was doing was wrong,” he said, explaining why at one stage there was a gap of three years between taking money. “I didn’t realise at that stage I was hooked. That only became apparent later.”

“My resistance to accepting any more money from (bookmaker) Mr Gupta at that stage overcame my love for money,” he added.

Cronje spoke earlier of how his lust for money had blinded him to the immorality of his actions.

“I lied to my wife from April 7 to the morning of April 11,” he said. “I got an absolute huge fright when I saw my name had appeared in the newspapers in connection with match-fixing in India.”

He said he had hidden stacks of money all over his house which he than had to ask his wife to collect and deliver to his lawyers in Bloemfontein.

When counted, the money totalled more than $ 47,000. It has been deposited with the Reserve Bank.

NEW DELHI: The CBI today questioned for over five hours the former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin in connection with the match-fixing scandal in cricket and his links with Indian bookmaker Mukesh Gupta, who allegedly bribed the disgraced South African captain Hansie Cronje.

Azharuddin arrived at the CBI headquarters in the morning and his questioning by the Special Crime Branch of the agency lasted over five hours. However, while emerging out of the CBI office neither he nor the CBI spokesman said a word about what Azharuddin had said.

The desposition of Azharuddin comes in wake of allegation levelled by Cronje that he had introduced him to Gupta in 1996.

Sacked captain Cronje stood his ground during his cross examination yesterday before the King Commission and maintained that Mohammad Azharuddin had introduced him to Gupta, despite a strong denial by the former Indian captain.

The deposition also followed video-tapes clandestinely shot by Manoj Parbhakar in which, the former all-rounder had claimed that Azharuddin was in the know of the alleged offer of Rs 25 lakh made by Kapil Dev to under perform against Pakistan in a tri-nation series in Sri Lanka in 1994.

Sources close to Azharuddin said he had flown to the capital early in the morning and wanted to clarify his stand on the allegations levelled against him.