SA media for tough penalty for Cronje, open probe

Johannesburg, April 23: The South African media has suggested firm steps to stamp out the betting and match-fixing scourge and suggested t...

Johannesburg, April 23: The South African media has suggested firm steps to stamp out the betting and match-fixing scourge and suggested that even a life ban on sacked skipper Hansie Cronje would not be improper if he was found guilty and that the upcoming judicial probe should be a thorough affair.

The Sunday Independent of Johannesburg, in a column on the Cronje episode said an attempt had to be made “to halt cricket’s slide into the abyss” and that Cronje’s admission he took money from an Indian bookie only for “forecasting and information” cannot be the precedent set by Australian stars Shane Warne and Mark Waugh in 1995.

“It must stop here and if that entails a lifetime ban for Cronje, so be it. The Internaional Cricket Council (ICC), The UCB (South African Board) and South Africa’s cricket fans must find that moral high ground to save to soul of sport,” the columnist wrote.

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A fortnight after Cronje and four teammates were named by the Delhi Police in the sensational case, papers continued to be dominated by reports on the raging issue.

Some of the headlines in the Sunday papers read: “It’s time for a new Immorality Act in South Africa,” “The truth, the whole truth and anything but the truth” and “Fixing has a history as long and colourful as cricket itself”.

The Sunday Independent, in another column, demanded drastic action and wanted the judicial inquiry to be a thorough affair which did not meet the same fate as the probes conducted in Australia and Pakistan.

Both Warne and Waugh were let off by the Australian Board with fines after admitting to receiving money from an Indian bookie in 1995 for providing “forecast and pitch information,” the incident itself becoming public only three years later.

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"The issue now is how the UCB and the ministries ofJustice and sport deal with the commission of inquiry. It will hopefully draw important lessons from the failing of similar inquiries both in Australia and Pakistan in recent years.

"The authority of the undertaking will be greatlyenhanced if it is not held in camera, as rumours have suggested, but is a public inquiry, IE. it’s findings are made public.

"The track record of other agencies in other countries inthis regard is not good – which should make us appropriately sceptical that this inquiry is going to make the best of a sorry affair".

An inquiry into allegations of betting and match-fixingin Indian cricket absolved players and administrators of any wrongdoing, but was ma". de public after three years and criticised as "eyewash".

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The judicial inquiry is expected to be instituted in aday or two with the Justice ministry in the final stages of finalising the judge to head the probe.

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