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Cassim's June 26 testimony

MR CASSIM: Sanjay wanted to contact him whatever they were discussing in India.

MS BATOHI: Sorry?

MR CASSIM: Whatever they were discussing in India, probably.

MS BATOHI: Now you say 'probably'. Please, Mr Cassim, we're going to be spending the rest of the afternoon here is we don't get down to the brass tacks. Did Sanjay contact you and ask you to contact Mr Cronjé in Sharjah?

MR CASSIM: I think so.

MS BATOHI: You think so?

MR CASSIM: Yes, okay, yes.

MS BATOHI: Not, 'yes, okay', you're not saying it to please me, Mr Cassim.

MR CASSIM: I just can't recall all these thing, Adv Batohi. Really, it's being a bit - it's a tough - for me to remember dates and times, and all this, it's very difficult.

MS BATOHI: I'm not asking you about dates and times, Mr Cassim. You have testified that you contacted Mr Cronjé in Sharjah. Now my question to you is did Sanjay contact you and ask you to contact Mr Cronjé in Sharjah?

MR CASSIM: Yes.

MS BATOHI: What did he want you to tell Mr Cronjé?

MR CASSIM: He just wanted to - what he told me was that he wanted to speak to Mr Cronjé, and I should contact Hansie that Sanjay wanted to contact him. If Sanjay can contact him, I should give Sanjay the go-ahead.

MS BATOHI: So what you're saying now is that you only call Mr Cronjé in Sharjah to tell him that Sanjay wanted to contact him?

MR CASSIM: That's correct.

MS BATOHI: Now just a moment ago you said that you were telling him something about pitch reports and team selections, things like that. Just a minute or two ago you said that that is what you told Mr Cronjé.

MR CASSIM: That was from the last discussion they ever had here in South Africa. Whatever transpired between Hansie and Sanjay in India, up until today I personally know that I will never know what transpired between the two of them.

COMMISSIONER: You see, Mr Cassim, what disturbs me a little, you described your experience in the - at the Beverley Hills hotel, your witnessing what transpired between Cronjé and Sanjay, and it shocked you as I understand it. Is that correct?

MR CASSIM: Correct.

COMMISSIONER: Here we are several months down the line and you're still doing Sanjay's dirty work for him. That doesn't gel, doesn't gel at all. What I'm saying to you, you're still doing his dirty work for him. You're phoning Cronjé and you're telling him that Sanjay wants to speak to him about this that and the other, the same sort of stuff that shocked you at the room in the Beverley Hills hotel. That's why I have a little problem in understanding everything you're saying to me.

MS BATOHI: Now I'm just going to get back to paragraph 61. When Mr Manca put this very statement to you, the statement in Mr Cronjé's affidavit, where Mr Cronjé says he was contacted by you and you indicated that: "Sanjay wished to resume contact with me along the same lines as in India." You follow? When that was put to you by Mr Manca, you said you can't deny that happened. And we've gone through this now, and you've admitted now that Sanjay did call you and that as a result of that you called Mr Cronjé in Sharjah, discussed tickets and also the fact that Sanjay wished to resume contact with him. Am I correct?

MR CASSIM: Correct.

MS BATOHI: And along what lines - Mr Cronjé says Sanjay - you told him that Sanjay wished to resume contact along the same lines as in India. What were you talking about?

MR CASSIM: I always believed that it was match reports, the pitch reports, the team selections, the bowling.

MS BATOHI: Is that what you told Mr Cronjé when you spoke to him? That Sanjay ...(intervention)

MR CASSIM: No.

MS BATOHI: Well, look at Mr Cronjé's statement, paragraph 61. You have agreed that Mr Cronjé - you contacted him in Sharjah, told him that Sanjay wished to resume contact with him. Do you follow? And then Mr Cronjé says that he wanted to resume - you told him that Sanjay wished to resume contact 'along the same lines as in India'. And when Mr Manca questioned you about this, you said you couldn't deny this. That means you agreed with him that you could possibly have told Mr Cronjé that. Do you follow?

MR CASSIM: Yes.

MS BATOHI: Now on that basis, what would you have meant? If you - you've agreed, you haven't said, 'Look, no. I could never have told that to Mr Cronjé because I wouldn't have known what was going on in India.' You've agreed that you could possibly have told that to Mr Cronjé. Now in the light of that, what would you have meant if you said he wanted to resume contact along the same lines as in India?

MR CASSIM: My belief was still that - what I believe is that they wanted to resume the - the relationship that they had in India.

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