Holding a memorial service for match-fixer Hansie Cronje a year after the sacked South African captain’s death is not as strange as it may seem. Well, not in South Africa. These days South Africans of all races have become quite adept at forgiving liars, crooks and cheats, among them politicians as well as sportsmen.In Cronje’s case, it is the white South Africans, some still umbilically linked to the isolationist apartheid era and others falsely paying lipservice to the rainbow nation image and the early years of Nelson Mandela’s rule, who are most forgiving of their former white knight.Cronje’s dishonesty in match-fixing was exposed by Indian police in New Delhi on April 7, 2000 and world cricket’s image took a battering. As he fell during a very public hearing known as the King Commission where there was an admission of guilt, Cronje exposed former Indian captain and icon Mohammed Azharuddin and Pakistan’s Salim Malik, someone long suspected of being a bookmaker’s pimp in match-fixing arrangements.And still questions remain of who else was involved in the dirty deals in which bookmaker M K Gupta was the major player. Last weekend, in the wet and chilly seaside town of George, on the South African east coast, several former players, including Mark Boucher, vice-captain of the one-day side which is soon to play the NatWest limited overs series in England, turned up for a memorial service to honour their disgraced teammate.When it was over they held an auction of some of his gear and sold a bat he had used against the West Indies for about US$4 100. The money was to go towards some worthy charity involving children.There were any number of faces and facades behind which Cronje hid his true identity. In his early years, he had the habit of peering almost curiously from under a jutting brow and ask a pertinent question or two if he was uncertain about an opposing player’s skills. He did this in early 1993 when leading South Africa Under-24 against the Sri Lanka Under-24s led by Sanath Jayasuriya and wanted to know what sort of left-hander the Matara Mauler was.Then there were times when his eyes did not fix on those asking a question but someone else in the group. It was a trait noticeable years later when facing the media after losing a Test and indicated that he had reached an emotional crossroad; he would not look directly at the questioner.He adopted the same ploy the night at Kingsmead in Durban on April 9, 2000 when he denied his role in match-fixing. Snap judgements of events and their follow up all too often obscure the facts. In this case it is easy to suggest that from the moment he was appointed captain, Cronje was an easy target for Indian bookmakers. They were always looking for someone near the top or at the top to pass on information.Just as Malik and later Azharuddin were bought with the lure of luxuries, they used Malik’s possible early influence to interest South Africa’s captain. There is little doubt too that Cronje liked to play the devil’s advocate with himself and test his own knowledge of the game and its conditions.Sure he was embarrassed at having to give a nodded admission to Malik’s comment that ‘‘John’’ had called with an offer during the Mandela Cup final. On January 10, 1995, at Newlands in Cape Town, Cronje found himself in the metaphorical position of being a teenager facing the reality of experimenting with drugs and wondering what drug to take.But it is such a dangerous game: it can spin seriously out of control as there is the gamble to try something stronger. The question then arises, why did he not confide in someone about the problems he was starting to face? Or were some officials also on the take?It has long been suspected, but never proved, that there are administrators who were also involved. Is this why Cronje declined to unburden his guilt as it spread its cancerous tumour and before the inevitable bells tolled on his career?When he looked around him who was there to talk to in the South Arican side? Perhaps he felt too embarrassed, or too ashamed. Yet for reasons which only he never explained, he did not want to drag his family through such mental and emotional trauma.It seems there was no player he could trust in the side, or one with the mental strength for him to unload such frightening information. The management also had its problems and the egos of the two men getting in the way of Cronje’s relationship with the coach Bob Woolmer. Cronje had failed the system by talking to the bookmakers and his involvement by taking money and condemned himself to a life of deception.There were many who believed in Cronje; he was the essence of the modern face of the spiritually cleansed young Afrikaner, reaching out to embrace the country’s rainbow image. They discovered instead a cardboard cutout that left many with a twisted inner anguish. His admission had betrayed their trust and the game for the moment was mentally broken on the wrack of lies and deceit and greed.Their white knight had been knocked off his charger. And now they hold a memorial service. Little wonder South African cricket is struggling to find a new identity. Cronje’s ghost is being allowed to destroy the game.
