ad info




TIME Asia
TIME Asia Home
Current Issue
Magazine Archive
Asia Buzz
Travel Watch
Web Features
  Entertainment
  Photo Essays

Subscribe to TIME
Customer Services
About Us
Write to TIME Asia

TIME.com
TIME Canada
TIME Europe
TIME Pacific
TIME Digital
Asiaweek
Latest CNN News

Young China
Olympics 2000
On The Road

 ASIAWEEK.COM
 CNN.COM
  east asia
  southeast asia
  south asia
  central asia
  australasia
 BUSINESS
 SPORTS
 SHOWBIZ
 ASIA WEATHER
 ASIA TRAVEL


Other News
From TIME Asia

Culture on Demand: Black is Beautiful
The American Express black card is the ultimate status symbol

Asia Buzz: Should the Net Be Free?
Web heads want it all -- for nothing

JAPAN: Failed Revolution
Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori clings to power as dissidents in his party finally decide not to back a no-confidence motion

Cover: Endgame?
After Florida's controversial ballot recount, Bush holds a 537-vote lead in the state, which could give him the election

TIME Digest
FORTUNE.com
FORTUNE China
MONEY.com

TIME Asia Services
Subscribe
Subscribe to TIME! Get up to 3 MONTHS FREE!

Bookmark TIME
TIME Media Kit
Recent awards

TIME Asia Asiaweek Asia Now TIME Asia story

APRIL 24, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 16


Sherwin Crasto/AP
Former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje at practice in February .

It's Just Not Cricket
Charges that South Africa's Hansie Cronje took money to throw matches soil the image of the Gentleman's Game
By MASEEH RAHMAN New Delhi

Hansie Cronje was a cricketer's cricketer. For fans everywhere, the captain of South Africa's national team embodied the true spirit of the game: he was unrelentingly competitive but unfailingly sporting. A shrewd strategist and an inspirational leader, the 30-year-old Bloemfontein native was also a standard-bearer for his country. Alas, no more. Last week, police in New Delhi accused Cronje of taking money from bookies to fix cricket matches. If the charges stick, they would not only destroy the player's career, but could also severely tarnish the image of the game.

Police released transcripts of phone conversations, allegedly between Cronje and a London-based Indian businessman, Sanjeev Chawla, indicating that a series of five One Day Internationals played between South Africa and India last month had been fixed by an illegal betting syndicate. (Favored South Africa lost the series 3-2.) A case of cheating, fraud and criminal conspiracy was filed against Cronje, Chawla and a Delhi businessman, Rajesh Kalra, whose mobile phone was reportedly used by the South African captain as he allegedly worked out crooked deals with Chawla. After his arrest, Kalra told the weekly India Today he believed the South Africa-India series was fixed by Chawla for between $400,000 and $500,000. Chawla, who runs a teen clothing boutique on London's Oxford Street, denies the match-rigging allegations and insists he has never met or spoken to Cronje.

  ALSO IN TIME
COVER: Mouth of the People
Japan's Shintaro Ishihara triggers controversy once again, but hidden within the furor is the reality that, for disillusioned citizens, Tokyo's populist Governor has become an important symbol of change
Extended Interview: "There's no need for an apology"
Power Politics: The local pols begin to assert themselves
TAIWAN: War of Words
Beijing lashes out at the island's Vice President-elect for her outspoken views on reunification
One System: China tries to muzzle Hong Kong's press
VIETNAM: History Lesson
Twenty-five years after the end of the war, newly released documents paint a fascinating picture of its last days

BIOLOGY: The Stud Within
American men (and not only men) eagerly await a new testosterone gel that promises better sex and bigger muscles. But what does the notorious hormone actually do?

CRICKET: Bad Form
A match-fixing scandal takes down South Africa's captain

TRAVEL WATCH:
Ho Chi Minh City -- An Intriguing Mix of Past and Present

Suspicious South Africans suggest the charges are a ploy to demoralize their team. In the telephone transcripts released by police, a man identified as Cronje names four teammates as allegedly in on the scam. South Africa's United Cricket Board initially stood by Cronje, whose first reaction to the charges was to dismiss them as "absolute rubbish." At his holiday home in the Eastern Cape, where he and his wife Bertha were celebrating their wedding anniversary, he declared: "It just doesn't make any sense to me at all."

Sense dawned a few days later. Cronje telephoned UCB managing director Ali Bacher at 3 a.m. on April 11 to confess that he had "not been honest." He admitted taking $8,200 from two men a few weeks before his departure for India. Cronje insisted he hadn't thrown any matches, said Bacher, but merely provided "information and forecasting" about the result. Cronje was immediately dropped from the side. A new captain was appointed, and a judge was asked to inquire into the affair. "We in South African cricket are shattered," announced Bacher.

The sacking has sent the country into shock. In newspaper columns and on radio talk shows, commentators and fans are pouring out their grief. Ray McCauley, the head of South Africa's Rhema Church, of which Cronje is a member, felt obliged to advise his countrymen not to blow up a sporting scandal into "a national crisis." The more charitable of Cronje's peers say he has been stupid. He is receiving less sympathy from sportswear giant Adidas, sponsor of the South African team, which announced it was cutting its ties with the disgraced player. Cronje also lost a lucrative hamburger endorsement deal with a national restaurant chain.

While the born-again Christian ponders his sins, cricket's administrators are under pressure to do some serious soul-searching of their own. Rumors of match-fixing have been circulating for years, and the stories proliferated in the 1990s as the fast-paced, one-day version of the game made it ever more popular. It is no coincidence that most of the rumors involve players or gambling syndicates in the subcontinent: with their cricket-mad multitudes, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are happy hunting grounds for bookies. In India alone, where gambling is allowed only at racetracks, the turnover from illegal betting on cricket is estimated at several billion dollars a year. It is a sophisticated business: punters can wager not just on the final result of a match, but also on the events in each over bowled and on the performance of individual players. Insiders say bookies routinely offer players hefty cash incentives to tailor their performance to the odds. But until the Delhi police stumbled onto the alleged scam while investigating an underworld extortion racket, no one had produced evidence of wrongdoing.

No one had really tried. Despite warnings from several players, the national cricket boards and the London-headquartered International Cricket Council have done little to pursue allegations of match-fixing, much less punish guilty cricketers. "It's been going on for years," says former South African captain Clive Rice. "But players probably thought they could get away with it because nothing was being done."

Many players fear that if the administrators don't stem the rot soon, they risk driving away spectators and sponsors. After the Delhi police bombshell, ICC president Jagmohan Dalmiya promised "those who seek to tarnish the image of cricket in this manner must be brought to justice." Chances are, bookies in Bombay will be offering odds against that happening.

With reporting by Guy Hawthorne/Johannesburg and Kate Noble/London


Write to TIME at mail@web.timeasia.com

This edition's table of contents
TIME Asia home


AsiaNow


Quick Scroll: More stories from TIME, Asiaweek and CNN

   LATEST HEADLINES:

WASHINGTON
U.S. secretary of state says China should be 'tolerant'

MANILA
Philippine government denies Estrada's claim to presidency

ALLAHABAD
Faith, madness, magic mix at sacred Hindu festival

COLOMBO
Land mine explosion kills 11 Sri Lankan soldiers

TOKYO
Japan claims StarLink found in U.S. corn sample

BANGKOK
Thai party announces first coalition partner



TIME:

COVER: President Joseph Estrada gives in to the chanting crowds on the streets of Manila and agrees to make room for his Vice President

THAILAND: Twin teenage warriors turn themselves in to Bangkok officials

CHINA: Despite official vilification, hip Chinese dig Lamaist culture

PHOTO ESSAY: Estrada Calls Snap Election

WEB-ONLY INTERVIEW: Jimmy Lai on feeling lucky -- and why he's committed to the island state



ASIAWEEK:

COVER: The DoCoMo generation - Japan's leading mobile phone company goes global

Bandwidth Boom: Racing to wire - how underseas cable systems may yet fall short

TAIWAN: Party intrigues add to Chen Shui-bian's woes

JAPAN: Japan's ruling party crushes a rebel ì at a cost

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans need to have more babies. But success breeds selfishness


Launch CNN's Desktop Ticker and get the latest news, delivered right on your desktop!

Today on CNN
 Search

Back to the top   © 2000 Time Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.