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Cronje's June 22 testimony

MR CRONJE: The only time I was able to establish that was when it was counted.

MS BATOHI: Who counted it?

MR CRONJE: On the 11th of April in the morning early, I phoned my wife, because at that stage, she had no idea that I was involved, I had lied to her from the 7th of April until the morning of the 11th of April, about my involvement in this. I phoned her and I said to her that obviously this is going to come as a shock to her, it was the early hours of the morning, that there is some money in the top of the cupboard, you've got to understand that we've moved houses, at that stage we moved from Bloemfontein to George, she did the move for me, she knew that she moved some dollars for me, but she was under the impression that those were dollars for the benefit matches that I received, and also from previous tours, left over sustenance allowances and money from my Kenya winnings. When I wasn't at home, I called her and I asked her to count the money. She counted a certain amount of money and then I phoned her again and said to her that "hang on, that is not all the money, that was just part of it", because on the 7th of April when the news broke, I got a huge fright and I hid money in different places in the house, so when she counted the money, she only counted part of it. She then took the money from George up to my Attorney in Bloemfontein, Mr Sackstein, who counted a certain section of the money and then later told me that the entire amount was $47 000. I told him that in that money there was, part of it was for the benefit matches that were coming up, part of it was from my sustenance allowances and part of it was from Sanjay.

MS BATOHI: How much of that was for the benefit matches that you have spoken about?

MR CRONJE: $25 000.

MS BATOHI: Was that in cash as well?

MR CRONJE: Yes, Ma'am.

COMMISSIONER: Just explain that to me Mr Cronjé, were these other players' benefit matches, the $25 000?

MR CRONJE: Mr Commissioner, I was involved in organising a five match series between an Indian XI and a South African XI to be played at the end of April, the beginning of May and the promoter of the match came down to Bloemfontein and handed me the dollars.

COMMISSIONER: Intended as prize money in some shape or form, or was it intended for you yourself?

MR CRONJE: Part of it was intended for myself as a payment for my services and part of it was for a deposit that I promised the players that, you see sometimes when you travel on these benefit matches, you arrive on the other side, and you don't get paid, and I said to them that I would give them a deposit each before we go over on this tour, and the tour never took place.

COMMISSIONER: So shouldn't the money have been returned to the person who had given it to you?

MR CRONJE: Once the news broke, I was in Durban and all the money was taken into the Reserve Bank, and at this stage we are waiting for this Commission to finish before we sort out all the finances, yes.

MS BATOHI: What part of that $25 000 was for you and what part for the players?

MR CRONJE: The fee for all the matches came to a certain amount, I think it was R250 000 per match and that each player was going to get $6 500, I think, $6 500 or $7 000 and some players were going to get more.

MS BATOHI: And you?

MR CRONJE: I was getting a fee for that and also my match appearance money.

MS BATOHI: What was your fee?

MR CRONJE: The difference between whatever the match fees were and what the players were getting paid.

MS BATOHI: How many players were going to go over to India?

MR CRONJE: 12 Players plus a manager.

MS BATOHI: Is that all members of the current South African national side?

MR CRONJE: Most of them are, there are some young players as well.

MS BATOHI: Is it correct that this team was going to play, correct me if I am wrong, but the teams, was Mr Azhuraddin in India, getting together a side as well?

MR CRONJE: Mr Azhuraddin I believe, was the opposite captain of this tournament, yes.

MS BATOHI: Explain to me, how was this tournament going to operate?

MR CRONJE: It was organised by PCM and it was a tournament that was going to be screened on Sony Max and it was five matches of 40 overs, 11 players a side.

MS BATOHI: What was the object of holding this tournament?

MR CRONJE: I think they wanted to try and have a new form of cricket in India, introduce a different kind of cricket. 40 Overs with 5 ball overs are more action, two overs from a side, before change over, you are going to have two overs from a side.

MS BATOHI: You have often said this during your testimony, Mr Cronjé, that you accept that you were driven by, well, I am looking at paragraph 41, greed and stupidity. Your whole intention of getting involved with Sanjay, not the whole intention, but you were in it for the money as well, isn't that correct?

MR CRONJE: That is correct.

MS BATOHI: So, why do you, you see what I cannot seem to fathom is that you - in your statement there appears to be a suggestion that these people were pests, you couldn't shake them off, the fact of the matter is that you were also in it for the money yourself?

MR CRONJE: I was trying to flip them along in just feeding them snippets of information, and then taking their money off them, if that is what you mean, yes.

MS BATOHI: In paragraph 43 you deal with this cellphone or simcard initially and then cellphone that was given to you by Sanjay. Did he personally give you the cellphone?

MR CRONJE: He gave me the handset later, yes, but the simcard was sent up to my room.

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