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Cronje's June 22 testimony

MR CRONJE: Nothing stopped me, whatsoever, no.

MS BATOHI: You still maintain you did not?

MR CRONJE: I didn't phone him to ask him for the money, no, I wish I did, but I didn't.

COMMISSIONER: Gupta strikes me as a bit of a soft touch if he was offering you $250 000, when you were on a as we both agreed, on a hiding to nothing.

MS BATOHI: I am just going to briefly deal with exactly what happened in that meeting, briefly I say because we have had a lot of testimony about it. There is just one or two things that I would like you to answer about that meeting. Is it correct that when this was put to the team, you were hoping that the team would accept it?

MR CRONJE: I made it very clear from the start of the meeting, that this was an opportunity and if ever there was going to be an opportunity for a team to take easy money, that this was probably the time to take it, because in my mind, even though it was my 50th One-day international and my 100th - 100th One-day international and 50th as captain, I didn't see it as a One-day international in that way, and that I felt that if ever there was an opportunity for a team to do it as a team, and it might look strange to you now, that a South African team would even think about it, but after 63 days, I think that was the feeling of some of the members of the team, but I also made it clear that in my opinion, that if we were going to do it, then the whole team must be in on it. I didn't want to take it, if there were 14 of us in the room, all 14 had to be in, not just 13, but all 14.

MS BATOHI: I hear what you are saying, but my question to you is were you hoping that the team would agree?

MR CRONJE: I didn't really have a strong view on it, I probably would have gone for it if the team had gone for it, yes.

MS BATOHI: What you were effectively doing at this time, Mr Cronjé, by putting it to the team is that you were in the process of corrupting young players, isn't that correct, thinking about something like this?

MR CRONJE: Ms Batohi, I have, on the 7th of April, I got a huge wake-up call when I read the newspaper or heard the report that there had been people taken into custody in India. Up until that stage, I didn't realise that I was playing with such big fire. I was only later, on the 11th of April, told that in fact what I had done was a corrupt act and was punishable under the Corruptions Act and also faced chances of extradition.

MS BATOHI: I am not speaking about the legalities of it at all, Mr Cronjé, what I am saying to you is that what you were doing at that stage is that you were making innocent players start thinking about doing something that was dishonest.

MR CRONJE: That is correct.

MS BATOHI: Why did you do that?

MR CRONJE: I didn't see the bad side of it at the time. When I say the bad side, I didn't think that it was bad, bad, bad, I am just saying that I thought it was okay-ish.

MS BATOHI: Are you really saying that you thought at that stage it was okay to put a proposal like that to the team?

MR CRONJE: As I said to you, I thought that in my opinion it wasn't a very important match, but looking back now, a One-day international playing in your South African clothing, it was a huge mistake on my part, yes.

MS BATOHI: Please bear with me, Mr Commissioner. You say in paragraph 19 of your statement that you had no further dealings with either MK, John or any other bookmakers or punters on that tour, but effectively that was the end of the tour, isn't that correct?

MR CRONJE: That is correct.

MS BATOHI: And immediately following on your return to South Africa, India then came to South Africa on a tour?

MR CRONJE: That is correct.

MS BATOHI: That would have been the end of 1996, early 1997 and you say MK also came to South Africa?

MR CRONJE: That is correct.

MS BATOHI: You then go on to say that he was in Durban for the first test and in Cape Town for the second test.

MR CRONJE: That is correct.

MS BATOHI: And you state that during the first and the second test, you were asked to provide information is that correct?

MR CRONJE: He asked me what would I thought would happen in the first test match and I said that I think South Africa had a very good chance of beating India handsomely, yes.

MS BATOHI: It was during the second test which took place at Newlands from the 2nd to the 6th of January 1997, that you were asked to tell him at what score you would declare and after that you found that he had transferred a sum of R50 000 into your Bloemfontein NBS account?

MR CRONJE: $50 000.

MS BATOHI: $50 000, I beg your pardon, yes.

MR CRONJE: Yes, he asked me at what stage we would declare in the second innings and I gave him a rough estimate of a score.

COMMISSIONER: That is very important information, I should have thought to somebody in Gupta's position, when you can do a spreadbet for instance, do you agree with me?

MR CRONJE: I think in the game of betting, probably. If you give somebody a score, then that is probably a good chance that he will make money on it, I suppose. I haven't actually physically bet on a cricket match, but I would think that that is the case, yes.

COMMISSIONER: Particularly with the spreadbet, if somebody makes a book, if you estimate 270 runs, then or a line-bet, the bookie can take bets as to whether South Africa would declare or the innings would make more-or- less, this sort of - you weren't here, but Neil Andrews told us all about that type of betting.

The only reason I ask you this is because in your statement, the one that you read into the record, you say-

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