Daily Maverick
Dailymaverick logo

South Africa

South Africa, Sport, World

Hansie Cronje cricket disgrace – 25 years later, tech-savvy global sport corruptors target SA

Hansie Cronje cricket disgrace – 25 years later, tech-savvy global sport corruptors target SA
Former Proteas cricketer Herschelle Gibbs. (Photo: Tertius Pickard)
Caryn Dolley
By Caryn Dolley
7 Apr 2025
Facebook
14
On 7 April 2000, South Africa’s national cricket captain, Hansie Cronje, was accused in India of match-fixing, sparking a scandal that has persisted over a quarter of a century, spans several countries, and involves suspicions linked to a ‘global terrorist’. Crooks, meanwhile, still target sport.

https://youtu.be/gtk0Nazg0eA?si=1v7hcZeZMH3Segpp

Twenty-five years ago, the underbelly of global cricket was suddenly exposed, irrevocably changing the way the sport was viewed.

News emerged on 7 April 2000 that police officers in India had accused South Africa’s national cricket team captain Hansie Cronje of involvement in a conspiracy to fix matches between the two countries.

Cronje initially claimed he was innocent, but subsequently confessed to accepting bribes in the scandal that abruptly ended his career and rocked South Africa when it was a fledgling democracy.

The case also garnered global attention.

Cronje went on to court controversy even in death – he was killed in a plane crash in the Western Cape in 2002, an incident found to have been a result of pilot error.

However, the crash sparked wild rumours, pointing towards the sinister fringes of sport, that he was murdered to prevent him from incriminating other high-profile individuals involved in cricket corruption.

Major money


Match-fixing remains on local authorities’ radar – it is still a problem. 

In November last year, three former South African cricketers were arrested in a case dating back to around 2015. 

Sources with ties to policing or familiar with organised crime linked to sport have told Daily Maverick that as with other countries, South Africa is not immune from international and local syndicates.

They say these crooks are operating in, or via, the country and that big money is at play.

Read more: Tsolekile, Mbhalati and Tsotsobe arrested by Hawks for match-fixing in 2015/2016 Ram Slam T20 competition

Illustrating the kind of figures involved, the United Nations Global Report on Corruption in Sport, published last year, estimated that $140-billion was laundered annually through sports betting and between $340-billion and $1.7-trillion was wagered on illegal betting markets.

Stubborn suspicions about a globally wanted terror accused, originally from India with suspected ties to South Africa, also fit into this shady arena.

Hawks spokesperson Katlego Mogale recently confirmed to Daily Maverick that while the unit investigated match-fixing, it also focused on much broader corruption in the country.

Crackdowns vs colluding corruptors


Cricket South Africa (CSA) works with the Hawks and National Prosecuting Authority to stamp out criminality.

CSA’s Anti-Corruption Unit head Louis Cole last week outlined to Daily Maverick its plans to prevent lawbreaking.

This included conducting “annual anti-corruption education sessions with all professional and semi-professional players.”

Cole acknowledged several challenges relating to how criminals were trying to outsmart those trying to close in on them.

“Recent Abu Dhabi T10, Zim T10 and Sri Lanka T10 events have been wracked with reports and investigations into allegations of corruption and match-fixing. The very same corruptors in those events have been fishing in South African waters,” he said. 

“Domestically, it has become clear that betting syndicates have become more organised. 

“International syndicates are increasingly collaborating with known domestic counterparts.” 

Cole said crooks were adapting and using advanced technology to avoid detection.



An International Cricket Council (ICC) spokesperson told Daily Maverick roughly the same.

“It is recognised that those who target cricket for corrupt reasons will always seek new ways to infiltrate the sport. 

“The ICC Anti-Corruption Unit is continually seeking ways to stay ahead of those methods, using various ways to disrupt and shut them down.”

It was using a four-pronged approach to deal with corruption – prevention, disruption, investigation and prosecution.

“The creation of anti-corruption units globally to help protect and respond to corruption threats has gone a long way in raising awareness of the need to protect the sport.

“Collaboration within cricket and with external partners has also provided resilience”.

‘Others were involved’ 


It is beneath this that the Cronje case is still reverberating – four individuals allegedly tied to it are embroiled in legal action in India. 

And there are suspicions that some, dubiously involved in the saga, have managed to slip off the hook. 

“I do believe that others were also involved,” Neeraj Kumar, a former commissioner of the Delhi Police, told Daily Maverick last month in response to several questions about the case. 

Kumar served as a policeman for 37 years before retiring in 2013. He is a former head of the anti-corruption unit at the Board of Control for Cricket in India, and has authored books including A Cop in Cricket, which explores the depths of organised crime in the sport. 

He referred to how the Cronje case was cracked – and emphasised that it was unprecedented.

Read more: Former cricketer Jean Symes sentenced to four years for match-fixing – more prosecutions to follow

“Hansie’s involvement was revealed based on telephonic intercepts in which his own voice was captured,” Kumar said. 

“He later confessed to his role.”

Kumar vividly recalled the impact the case had on international cricket. 

The year 2000 match fixing case involving Hansie Cronje et al blew the lid off rampant corruption in cricket the world over.

“It is difficult to imagine the extent of the rot that had set in and virtually all big names in cricket were involved.”

25 years ago


The scandal blasted into the public domain on 7 April 2000 when it became known that the police in Delhi had charged Cronje with match fixing. 

Days later, in the early hours of 11 April, Cronje confessed to Ali Bacher, then managing director of the United Cricket Board of South Africa. 

A report from a commission of inquiry into cricket corruption and the Cronje saga – the King Commission – later stated: “He told Bacher that he, Cronje, had not been honest with him; he admitted that he had taken money from a bookmaker, Sanjay, an amount of between $10,000-$15,000.”

The King Commission’s evidence leader was Shamila Batohi – now South Africa’s National Director of Public Prosecutions. 

(According to CSA’s Cole, recommendations from the King Commission “led to the criminalisation of match-fixing”.) 

It emerged during the commission that a man named Hamid Cassim of Johannesburg, who did not face any charges, introduced Cronje to “Sanjay” – the bookmaker Cronje said he accepted money from. 

Daily Maverick has established that, based on an Indian government document from 2018 as well as other court papers, one of the men now facing legal action in India over the Cronje saga, Sanjeev Chawla, had also allegedly gone by the name Sanjay.

Cronje was fired as South Africa’s cricket captain on 11 April 2000.

cronje gibbs Former Proteas cricketer Herschelle Gibbs. (Photo: Tertius Pickard)



Other local cricketers also got caught up in the scandal. Henry Williams and Herschelle Gibbs, who Cronje had apparently approached and asked to underperform, were banned for six months. 

‘I was not honest’


Two days after he was sacked, on 13 April 2000, a statement was issued on behalf of Cronje in which he still tried to distance himself from influencing match results: “All I will say is that I was not involved in fixing or manipulating the results of cricket matches.

“I always played to win.”

A couple of months later, in June 2000, he said he had taken bribes to the value of tens of thousands of US dollars.

“I misled the United Cricket Board of South Africa and members of the South African government and those who tried to defend me. I also withheld facts from my legal representatives,” Cronje said. 

“I was not honest and I apologise unreservedly. I have also decided to sever my connections with the game and will not again play cricket at representative level.

“Words cannot begin to describe the shame, humiliation and pain which I feel in the knowledge that I have inflicted this on others.”

Cronje reportedly also said that in a moment of weakness he “allowed Satan and the world to dictate terms to me” and that he had “an unfortunate love of money”.

He was indemnified from criminal prosecution in South Africa.

‘A far cleaner game’


Kumar, in his responses to Daily Maverick last month, said the Cronje case resulted in tighter cricket controls. 

“This case was a watershed moment following which things began to improve and have continued to look up,” he said.

“Though it cannot be said with confidence that all is well with the sport even today… I can say with confidence that cricket is a far cleaner game today than what it used to be in 2000 or before.”

Kumar explained this was due to several players being caught when involved in underhanded dealings, the possibility of being banned from the game if exposed, and a stringent anti-corruption regime that cricket boards and the International Cricket Council implemented.

“Every player is aware that if they slip up, not only would their careers be over, but they could also end up in prison.”

As for the personal impact the Cronje saga had on him, Kumar said: “The case disillusioned me as a cricket fan, and I have always looked at the game with a tinge of suspicion.”

Accusations in India


Even though 25 years have lapsed since the initial Cronje fallout, the four individuals – Sanjeev Chawla, also allegedly known as Sanjay, Rajesh Kalra, Krishan Kumar and Sunil Dara – still face accusations in India. 

It is not clear what became of a fifth accused who may have been or may still be in Canada or the US.

Charges in the Cronje case were filed in India in 2013.

Kumar, in another media interview, said during that year he discovered, to his “horror”, that up until then no charges had been filed in the case, so he took it upon himself to resuscitate the matter and ensure this was done – 13 years after the Cronje accusations first surfaced.

Pointing to the extensive reach and the major implications of the saga, Chawla was extradited from the UK to India in 2020, despite his attempts to avoid this.



Delhi court papers from that year said the State alleged: “He was the main link between the players and an alleged syndicate which was running betting on these matches and had profited hugely from these match fixings”.

Other court documents from the England and Wales High Court give insight into what happened to Chawla in the run-up to his extradition. 

A 2018 judgment said Chawla had moved to the UK in 1996. 



“It is alleged that Mr Chawla acted as a conduit between bookies who wanted to fix cricket matches and Hansie Cronje, then captain of the South African test cricket team,” the judgment said.

“It appears that the alleged conduct was discovered when law enforcement agencies investigating an unrelated matter undertook telephone tapping.

“The telephone tapping revealed plans to fix forthcoming cricket matches between the touring South African and Indian test teams.” 

As part of the criminal investigation in India, the judgment alleged that Chawla was asked to provide a voice sample, which he refused. 

Daily Maverick did not manage to get hold of his lawyer.

Legal proceedings relating to Chawla and the other three men facing accusations in the matter were still inching ahead in India as of March this year.

Court records showed the “process of appointing the Special Public Prosecutor in this matter” was at an advanced stage.

Global terror accused Dawood Ibrahim


Circling match-fixing accusations are several suspicions linking cricket scandals to Dawood Ibrahim, 69, a wanted terror accused from India who heads the notorious gang D-Company. 

D-Company is involved in crimes including extortion, contract killings, drug trafficking – and cricket match-fixing.

Read more: SA’s Narcos Capture – the Mandrax trafficker and ‘wanted terrorist’ matrix haunting the ANC, Zuma, Guptas

Its members have previously been traced to South Africa, and Ibrahim was under investigation in the 1990s for Mandrax smuggling through Africa, including this country.

In 2003, the year after Cronje died, the US labelled Ibrahim “a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.”

Also in 2003, the Times of India reported that Ibrahim was expected at a cricket match in Centurion, South Africa.

Read more: ‘Gold Mafia’ whistle-blower places wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim in Gupta, Zuma circles

Questions were asked about whether he had been present in the stadium with Jackie Selebi, South Africa’s national police commissioner at the time, who went on to become president of the international police organisation Interpol.

Selebi was subsequently convicted of corruption in another case involving drugs.

Daily Maverick also previously reported that an Al Jazeera exposé placed Ibrahim in this country during Jacob Zuma’s presidency – and in State Capture circles.

‘Still fixing matches’


As for the Cronje scandal, there had previously been some suggestions that Ibrahim may have been involved. 

In 2020, the main investigating officer on the Cronje case, Ishwar Singh, was quoted in the Indian-based publication The Economic Times, referring to Ibrahim and saying: “I heard one of his henchmen talking over the phone about it.” 

Singh believed Ibrahim may have been directly or indirectly involved.



Daily Maverick made brief contact with Singh last month, but he was unable to provide comment.

Kumar, in his responses to Daily Maverick, said that Ibrahim was not involved in the 2000 Cronje saga.

He alleged Ibrahim had, however, cropped up in what is now widely known as the 2013 Indian Premier League spot-fixing and betting saga.

“I have reasons to believe that he continues to be involved in betting/fixing of cricket matches even today,” said Kumar. DM

Categories:

Tags: