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Cassim's June 26 testimony

MS BATOHI: I'm not asking you about what your belief was. What did you tell Mr Cronjé what Mr Sanjay wanted? You said he - Mr Cronjé says that Sanjay wanted to resume contact, which is what you told him, along the same lines as in India. Now what did you tell Mr Cronjé? And I'm going to ask you this for the last time, I hope, what did you mean when you said, 'along the same lines as in India'?

MR CASSIM: What I meant was how you were helping Sanjay in India, he wants you to help him here in Sharjah.

MS BATOHI: How was Mr Cronjé helping Sanjay in India to your knowledge?

MR CASSIM: I really don't know. I can't tell you how Mr Cronjé was helping Sanjay in India.

MS BATOHI: Wasn't it match forecasting, pitch report, team selections?

MR CASSIM: That's what I told you, but I mean, further then that I don't know, more than that how much he was helping Mr Chawla.

MS BATOHI: Why when I asked you what he was helping him for you say, 'I don't know', and then when I remind you that you've already testified about these things, then you agree with me? Are you being entirely honest with this Commission, Mr Cassim?

MR CASSIM: I'm being entirely honest with this Commission.

MS BATOHI: Well, look at paragraph 9 of your statement, page 16. You deal specifically with the phone call from Mr Cronjé - by you to Mr Cronjé in Sharjah, Dubai. I'll read it to you: "At a later stage when South Africa went to Dubai to play the Sharjah Cup, friends of mine told me they were going to watch the game and asked me whether or not I could try and arrange some tickets for the games. I thereafter contacted Mr Cronjé and asked him whether or not he was in a position to try to arrange some tickets for the series." Okay? So you're now talking here about this same phone call that you've testified about now when you asked him about the tickets, and also told him that Sanjay wanted to resume contact along the same lines as in India, isn't that so?

MR CASSIM: Correct.

MS BATOHI: Why do you leave out the part about Sanjay and only talk about the tickets?

MR CASSIM: Like I told you I was going through a very difficult time in my life, Adv Batohi.

MS BATOHI: You remember a simple thing, and insignificant thing like the tickets, and knowing that this Commission of Inquiry is really dealing with match-fixing, you forget to mention that you also talked about Sanjay wanting to resume contact with him. Can you comment on that?

MR CASSIM: Comment on what?

MS BATOHI: Was there any contact, to your knowledge, between Sanjay and Mr Cronjé in Sharjah?

MR CASSIM: Phrase that question again, Adv Batohi.

MS BATOHI: Was there any contact, as far as you know, between Sanjay and Mr Cronjé during the Sharjah Cup?

MR CASSIM: I can't remember.

MS BATOHI: Just dealing with that money which you say that Mr Chawla handed to Mr Cronjé at the room in the Beverley Hills in Umhlanga. It's just something that's just so obvious, you state an envelope and Mr Cronjé has said a cellphone box. Now that's two totally different things, I mean an envelope and a cellphone box, can't really mistake those two. What is the position? Can you just explain that?

MR CASSIM: I think it was an envelope and Mr Cronjé says it's a cellphone box, I'm still baffled about that.

MS BATOHI: Do you think perhaps Mr Cronjé was given an envelope and a cellphone box, containing a cellphone perhaps?

MR CASSIM: No.

MS BATOHI: Are you saying he did not get a box containing a cellphone?

MR CASSIM: Sorry? He did not get a box containing a cellphone.

MS BATOHI: Was it just one thing? Was it just an envelope or a cellphone box, or is it possible that there were two things, and in your mind are you absolutely sure it was an envelope?

MR CASSIM: I'm absolutely sure it was an envelope.

MS BATOHI: How big was this envelope?

MR CASSIM: I can't even tell you how big the envelope was, really. It was about this size? It wasn't a big envelope, that I can tell you.

COMMISSIONER: That's time out for the sixth round. You know there are two forms of what you might call ordinary envelope. There's the smaller one and then there's the longer one. Can you remember which of those it was?

MR CASSIM: It was the longer one.

MS BATOHI: And you said that there were dollars in there.

MR CASSIM: I presume if anybody takes something out of a safe, it must have been money.

MS BATOHI: You didn't answer, you didn't listen to my question.

MR CASSIM: Dollars.

MS BATOHI: Why do you presume it was dollars?

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