http://www.gupistan.com/gallery/1/036577.jpg
S.Africa’s Cronje killed in plane crash
Reuters - 1 June 2002
Former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje was killed in a plane which crashed in the country’s Western Cape province on Saturday, the country’s Sports Ministry said.
“He (Cronje) was killed. We can confirm that,” Graham Abrahams, a spokesman for the Sports Ministry, told Reuters.
Cronje, 32, was banned from professional cricket for life in October 2000 for his role in a match-fixing scandal.
He was banned after admitting he had accepted around $130,000 from bookmakers to influence the course of matches.
The disgraced cricketer’s brother Frans Cronje earlier told Reuters the plane had crashed in bad weather.
“Yes, it’s true. It was raining and they crashed into the side of a mountain,” said Frans Cronje, who was speaking before the Sport Ministry’s statement confirming the death.
Two other people were on board the Hawker Siddley 748 cargo plane when it took off from Bloemfontein at 5 a.m. local (0300 GMT), Trevor Davids, spokesman for South African Civil Aviation Authority, told Reuters.
The South African Press Association quoted doctors at the crash site as saying the two others on board the plane had also died. Their identities were not immediately known.
Davids said the plane crashed in mountains near George, a town near the coast, some 350 km (220 miles) east of Cape Town.
Cronje made his Test debut in 1992 against West Indies and was appointed South African captain two years later in a home series against New Zealand.
In 1996, he led South Africa to 1-0 home victory against England in their first five-Test series since returning to world cricket after apartheid.
But the star’s meteoric rise came to an abrupt halt in April 2000 when Indian police charged him with match fixing after a one-day series in March.
He told a commission investigating the allegations: “I tried to live a Christian life and walk the way the Lord wanted me to walk…I allowed Satan and the world to dictate terms to me.”
He admitted accepting about $130,000 from bookmakers over a four-year period but denied ever throwing a match.
ÈیÏÇÑ ˜Ñ ãÓáã ãیŸ Çÿ ÇááÀ ۔ Èä ÒیÇÏ ÇæÑ Èä ÞÇÓã ۔ ÛæÑی ÇæÑÛÒäæی ۔ ÇááÀ ǘÈÑ ۔
