Indian police charge Cronje with match-fixing

Entertainment Cricket and Other Sports
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Indian police have charged South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje and three team members with match-fixing and criminal conspiracy during the recent India- South Africa one-day series.

Delhi’s Joint Commissioner of Police K.K. Paul said Cronje along with Nicky Boje, Herschelle Gibbs and Pieter Strydom had been charged with “cheating, fraud and criminal conspiracy related to match-fixing and betting” during the series which was played in March and won 3-2 by India.

The United Cricket Board of South Africa swiftly denied the match-fixing allegations which first appeared in an Indian newspaper.

A statement said: "The United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCB) is certain that no South African cricket player has ever been involved in match-fixing.

“UCB managing director Ali Bacher has spoken to South African captain Hansie Cronje, who is adamant that the allegations contained in press reports in India are completely untrue. Cronje is known for his unquestionable integrity and honesty.”

Commissioner Paul told a news conference: “We will seek the help of Interpol because the crime has been committed by a foreign national and money has been paid in a London bank.”

Paul said police on Thursday registered a first information report against the South African cricketers and three Indian businessmen.

Paul said one of the businessmen had been arrested and had appeared in court earlier on Friday . He has been remanded in custody for two days.

I was wondering how India beat South Africa. Do you people believe these allegation? Interesting to say the least.

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The transcripts of the conversations show up Hansie hammering out details about which players were in league with him and how much each should get for services rendered.

**********‘If SA scores 270, consider the deal off’

Excerpts of conversations between bookmaker Sanjay Chawla and Hansie Cronje during the one-day series in India:

Sanjay: Hello

Hansie: Helo

Sanjay: Hello, Hi Hansie

Hansie: Hello, Hi Sanjay

Sanjay: Yeah, I am in the lobby at the moment, is it possible if I drop in for a few minutes?

Hansie: Where are you? In the lobby?

Sanjay: Yeah.

Hansie: You can come in.

Sanjay: I can come in.

Hansie: Yeah, I am in 346.

Sanjay: All right, no more. Okay bye, see you in two minutes.

Hansie: Yeah, okay.

Hansie: Okay you are back in London?

Sanjay: Yeah, I am in London.

Hansie: I had a look at pitch today, it can turn big.

Sanjay: It can turn big?

Sanjay: Is Strydom playing?

Hansie: Yes, he is playing, Yeah.

Sanjay: Boje?

Hansie: Boje is playing.

Sanjay: Yeah, Boje is playing … … and who is playing? Gibbs?

Hansie: Gibbs and myself.

Sanjay: Ya, what about anybody else?

Hansie: No I won't be able to get more.

Sanjay: You won't be able to get more.

Hansie: No

Sanjay: Okay just tell me. But you have only four with you and not anybody else?

Hansie: No

Sanjay: Klusener and no one?

Hansie: No. No. Impossible, impossible.

Hansie: No. No. They were saying that they were already doing Cochin. The other guys are already angry with me because I have not received their money you know.

Sanjay: No. But I told you but, I have already given him altogether 60.

Hansie: Ok.

Sanjay: And tomorrow I can deposit the money in your account, it is not a problem because of the time difference. Tomorrow itself I can deposit the money.

Hansie: Ok.

Hansie: Okay, I have spoken. Yes, everything is fine. Spoken to Gibbs, and to Williams, and Strydom. Everything is fine.

Sanjay: Already okay. And how many runs for Gibbs?

Hansie: Less than twenty.

Sanjay: Less than twenty?

Hansie: Yeah.

Sanjay: Okay. So everything is according to plan. They have to score at least 250?

Hansie: Yeah.

Sanjay: And if you score 270, it is off?

Hansie: Okay. And financially the guys want 25. They want 25 each.

Sanjay: Alright, Okay.

Hansie: So that's 75 for those three and --- What you can pay me? I do not know how much you pay me ----

Sanjay: You say.

Hansie: If you give me --- 140 for every body.

Sanjay: 140 altogether?

Hansie: Yeah.

Sanjay: Okay that's fine.

Hansie: Okay.

Sanjay: And we will sort something out for the previous one as well.

Hansie: Okay, sure.

Sanjay: Yeah?

Hansie: Alright. So we definitely are on.

Sanjay: Okay and one last thing I want to ask you --- you know just in case India bat first and if they get out for less than 250 and when you come to bat in second innings, is it possible that you could ask Gibbs to ---- his wicket ---- we will score him out and try and score slowly and not so fast so that you know ---- May be we can get out of it.

Hansie: Okay.

Sanjay: And just in case India is out for less than 250 if they bat first.

Hansie: Okay I will tell him.

Sanjay: Yeah?

Hansie: I will tell him.

Sanjay: And because if he starts scoring so early then we won't be able to get out of it.

Hansie: Okay. Not so early for the first five or six in the Indian innings.

Sanjay: Yeah.

Hansie: Okay.

I was watching BBC News World few minutes ago, and it showed the Indian press office, with so many..... reports and officers and police. It was packed the whole room. So it looks to me that he must have. Since no one can lie this much.
Show's you this world only cares about money and nothing else. All greedy fools..

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You know - if this shit is true then this is truly amazing. The ICC needs to step in immediately and do something about this.
First you had the Pakistanis then the Indians then the Sri Lankans, followed by the Aussies and now the South Africans. Match fixing iself but when you have the top three sides in the world involved ( Aus, SA, Pak ) then that means you`re in big trouble.

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Really sad.. I had such a great respect for South African players...

Everything is on sale in today's world..

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south africans! one would not have thought that they are also playing cricket for material concern. certainly the south african episode of match fixing has dissapointed millions of there fan and has certainly destroyed the cricket nation image.

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whole load of crap........mad up story

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Cronje is sacked. rediff says he admitted dishonesty. At least three indian cricketers are involved too.. god knows where it leads.

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If this is true than it is a very sad day for cricket in general. How can anyone rely on any match result anymore. Unbelievable.

http://www.pak.org/gupshup/mad.gif

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What about Shane Warne, who got hundreds of thousands of dollors for 'weather reports'? Australians prefered to sweep that case under carpet.

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Any idea which Indian palyers are involved. The game is tainted by these scandals. I have just read that Cronje phoned his superiors yesterday after which he was told to stand down, which he did. Pollock is the new captain.

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no names.. police are going slow and are not declaring names.. but newspapers claim contacts with cricketers from India, Pak, SA and Aus. Only SA comes as surprise. Rest of them have been rumored to be with thugs for quite some time.
i would say just dig out the entire stuff and punish no matter how great the person is a cricketer.

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Rename the ICC as the Cricketing WWF & start planning the whole match as they do in WWF.
People will still watch it if they are not told the result before the match!!!

I fear that then, the players will accept money for ‘not’ playing to the plans

http://www.pak.org/gupshup/biggrin.gif

http://www.pak.org/gupshup/biggrin.gif

http://www.pak.org/gupshup/biggrin.gif

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Wes ZZ I agree all those involved should be ounished regardless of who they are. But will that happen? Remeber, Australia was pointing fingers at Pakistan and India while they full well knew that their own players had taken money and they had brushed that under the carpet.

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Really sad day for cricket, in general.
As a fan of the game, Im so disappointed right now. When I look at my team, I DONT want to keep thinking..have they sold us out today? Or more importantly..have they sold the country out??

Sunny Gavaskar said it best..erase the records of all those found guilty.

I can only speculate on the names of the
Pakistani and Indian players…For Pakistan the names that have time and time again come up are Wasim Akram, Ijaz Ahmed, Salim Malik,
Inzamam ul haq, and Waqar Younis.

For India..Probhakar has been dropping hints for a long time..so my guess is that he blames Azharuddin, Jadeja, and Wadekar,

As for the Aussies…Warne is no angel nor
is Mark Waugh. But there are prob many others involved..in all test playing sides, actually.

Sucks

http://www.pak.org/gupshup/frown.gif

Believe In Angels.

Laterz,
ManiaX.

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I read an interview with one of the Bombay bookies once and he stated that "All the teams apart from England are up for sale".

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But why did Cronje admit? Such cases are very difficult to prove. If he did not admit, Delhi police would have hard time. Afterall SA provided us arms during Kargil period.
I liked MJ Akbar's comment. He said that he believes that the evidence is not cooked up. Cooking up false evidence like a tape is beyond abilities of delhi police. Maybe FBI or CIA could do it. But not Delhi police.

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It's a big news on all channels. After so much denial, calling it a hoax to malign South Africa, cutting off diplomatic relations. BBC interviewed South African media and they all said it was rubbish because Cronje was a devout Christian and he would never do that..

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Tuesday, April 11 (New Delhi) MSNBC:

The entire cricketing world appeared shocked and stunned as it became clear that its worst fears of corruption in the game might turn out to be true. However, BCCI Secretary Jaywant Lele, who had called the Cronje allegations rubbish, was not available for comment today.

As a stunned cricket fraternity learnt of Cronje's sacking, the initial reactions were cautious. ICC Chairman Jagmohan Dalmiya said that he was studying the developments. While the Indian board expressed surprise, Indian Captain Saurav Ganguly and former Captain Azharuddin were among the players who refused to comment.

However, former cricketers were quite vocal. Many feel that the proverbial can of worms may have been opened this time and that the image of cricket will be seriously tarnished. Mr. Venkatpaty Raju said, "It is bad for the game; now people will look at the players differently. Being sacked itself says something. I would never have thought this of Cronje. This is really shocking. It will have a negative impact on cricket. Even if you get out to a genuine ball, people will say money was paid. After this, everybody will think we took money and lost. This is really sad."

Syed Kirmani said, "It is a shock to me. I am ashamed to belong to this cricketing fraternity. Such things cannot happen in sport. It is as bad as selling your country, as being a traitor. How can you sell your country for money? This will have an adverse impact on the entire cricketing fraternity and the upcoming youngsters."

However, around the world, it is cricket fans who will be the hardest hit. They will have to come to terms with the fact that their cricketing heroes, who had been treated as demi-gods, have feet of clay.

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Mohabbat wrote:

However, around the world, it is cricket fans who will be the hardest hit. They will have to come to terms with the fact that their cricketing heroes, who had been treated as demi-gods, have feet of clay. <<

Very true. Mohabbat.
It's not unfair on the part of fans if they feel cheated.
I cannot see the game of cricket with clear eyes anymore. A catch dropped-and I'll feel the fielder is paid for it; a misunderstanding and run out-and I'll doubt if one of them is paid!

Fans buy costly tickets to watch the game. The Cricket Boards & Associations make their organised efforts to run the game. Sponsors spend so much on the teams....all of these are cheated.

ManiaX,
That's quite right what Sunny said. Erase all the records of the guilty players. Erase their names from the history of cricket. This will be the hardest & most fair punishment for them.

I want to change my signature.
There is no way to wealth....match fixing is the way!!!

There is no way to happiness.
Happiness is the way....

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Cronje is now saying that he never took part in any match fixing. How can you believe him when only until yesterday he was saying that he had never been involved in any scandals and that all the allegations were rubbish. What next? Is he trying to protect his team mates? Has he decided to take the fall for them? All I can say is that well done Delhi police. Keep it up and dig deep. Coming from me that must be some compliment. ;) ;)