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Cronje's June 22 testimony

COMMISSIONER: I am sorry, I am not clear Mr Cronjé, why did you throw that cellphone away? Why did you throw it away?

MR CRONJE: I got a fright when I read newspaper reports that I was involved in match-fixing in India and I knew that the cellphone that I was using at the time, was the cellphone that I used between myself and Sanjay.

COMMISSIONER: You mean that in some way the calls could have been checked up and monitored or details could, I am not very conversant with how these things work, but I do understand that one can get a printout of calls that are made on a cellphone, in either direction, was that what concerned you, were you trying to - I am not saying this in any derogatory sense - were you trying to hide the evidence?

MR CRONJE: I was trying to get rid of all evidence that I had any dealings with Sanjay, yes.

MS BATOHI: That second phone, the one that you received in Dubai, do you perhaps know what the phone number of that one was?

MR CRONJE: I have no idea.

MS BATOHI: It appears that the simcard on that phone has been purposefully cleared, do you know anything about that?

MR CRONJE: Not at all, no. I handed the phone to Mr Green when I saw him in Durban. When you say cleared, what do you mean?

MS BATOHI: It cannot be read? There is nothing on it?

MR CRONJE: Well, I think it is because I never received any calls on it.

MS BATOHI: But you made a lot of calls?

MR CRONJE: Yes, I made a lot of calls and so did my team-mates, yes.

MS BATOHI: At the very least, one should be able to pick those calls up?

MR CRONJE: I would presume so, yes.

MS BATOHI: Mr Commissioner, I do intend to go on to another matter, it is just a short while before the lunch adjournment, maybe we could adjourn at this stage.

MR MANCA: Mr Commissioner, just before you adjourn, just perhaps to assist you in one regard, you did have a query about the identity of Sanjay, Sanjeev. I have a copy of an affidavit that was signed by Mr Cassim on the 6th of June and just for your information, he refers to Sanjay and I will spell that for you, Sanjay and then a surname spelt C-h-a-w-l-a.

COMMISSIONER: Thank you Mr Manca, is it?

MR MANCA: That is correct.

MR WALLACE: Mr Commissioner, before we take the adjournment, I do wonder, we are going to lose time this afternoon because this room is unavailable and particularly in the light of Dr Lewis' evidence and so on, if there is a prospect of us being able to complete matters if we were to perhaps take a shortened adjournment, bearing in mind we are starting ten minutes early, it would probably be most desirable from a medical point of view and everybody's point of view. Perhaps watches in Durban are different from those in Cape Town.

COMMISSIONER Let's start at half past, arrange to reassemble if that is convenient, at quarter to two. Would that suit everybody?

MR WALLACE: Yes, certainly.

MS BATOHI: I have no problem with that.

COMMISSIONER: Alright.

COMMISSION ADJOURNS AT 12H57

ON RESUMPTION AT 13H54

WESSELS JOHANNES CRONJE: (s.u.o)

CROSS-EXAMINATION BY MS BATOHI: (cont) Thank you, Mr Commissioner. Mr Cronjé, I'm going to deal with the One-day internationals in India. Before I get onto that, the two tests, Mr Strydom, Pieter Strydom testified that he had been approached before the first test in India, and you have that in your statements as well. Please can you just explain to the Commission how you went about approaching Mr Strydom? What happened?

MR CRONJE: I said to Mr Strydom that there's a gentleman that wants us to play badly in the first innings of the test match.

MS BATOHI: And is that all you said to him? How did the conversation go?

MR CRONJE: Well, it started off by I was basically showing him some of the songs that I had recorded onto my laptop, and then it took about 5 or 6 minutes before I said to him that, 'listen I've this guy who wants us to play badly.' I approached him in a sort of joking manner, 'who wants us to play badly in the first innings of the test match.' And Mr Strydom said - it took him a while, but then eventually he said, no he's not interested, he's trying to establish himself in the side, and he's not interested.

MS BATOHI: Why did you choose to approach Mr Strydom?

MR CRONJE: Ag, I don't particularly know. I mean, I just approached him because he was one of the guys in the team. I mean, it could have been anyone. I just picked Mr Strydom for that minute.

MS BATOHI: Did you perhaps feel that he might be more easily influenced by you?

MR CRONJE: I wouldn't say that. It could have been anyone really. He was just the unlucky one and he's been named, and as you will see later, I mean I - unfortunately he was the one that I named.

MS BATOHI: Did you approach him in a joking manner because you really didn't know how he was going to react to this suggestion?

MR CRONJE: That's correct.

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