Nothing has changed for Cronje

Nothing has changed for Cronje
REUTERS

CAPE TOWN, APRIL 2: A United Cricket Board (UCB) lawyer has denied media reports that the board has softened its stance on banned former national captain Hansie Cronje.In an article headlined, “Cricket body relents on Hansie”, Tuesday’s Cape Times newspaper said the UCB was taking a “less severe approach” on the former national captain. “... Cronje may take part in cricket activities in South Africa as a private coach, provided he does so outside the ambit of the UCB’s activities,” the paper reported.

However, UCB lawyer Alex Abercrombie said the organisation’s outlook on the Cronje affair remained unaltered. “There’s been no change at all in what the resolution said originally,” Abercrombie told Reuters. “He’s even allowed to come and watch cricket matches, as long as it’s as an ordinary spectator.”

“If the cricket board is prepared to discuss things, they can contact us,” Cronje’s lawyer Les Sackstein told the Cape Times. “Hansie’s interests would be protected at all costs.”

However Sackstein declined to comment on the issue when contacted.Last October, the UCB banned Cronje for life as punishment for his role in cricket’s global match-fixing crisis. The UCB’s October resolution read: “The UCB council hereby intends to ban Hansie Cronje for life from all activities of the UCB and its affiliates (South Africa’s 11 provincial unions).”

Cronje admitted to the South African King Commission of inquiry in June that he had taken approximately US$100,000 from bookmakers to manipulate matches. But Cronje’s lawyers challenged his life ban in court papers lodged in December, to which the UCB responded last week.