Published: Feb 23, 2017, 02:58 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 23, 2017, 02:58 PM (IST)
While South Africa fans were devastated seeing their hero Hansie Cronje admitting to fixing matches, Cronje’s former captain Kepler Wessels claimed that he had suspected it way before Cronje’s confession. Wessels added that everything was not ‘100 per cent right’ with the cricketer, and said that Cronje’s behaviour and a few quotes while on the field often suggested that there was something uncanny. Cronje had admitted in 2000 to have been involved in match-fixing following a charge by Delhi police during South Africa’s tour of India. He was given a lifetime ban from any cricketing activities before getting killed in a tragic plane crash. READ: Hansie Cronje: 15 interesting things to know about former South African Captain
According to Herald Sun, Wessels told Cricket Legends about the Triangular series in 1994 involving Pakistan and Australia apart from South Africa: “Hansie made a few comments during the last couple of games that led me to believe that things weren’t 100 per cent right. We picked up a wicket and we were in the huddle and Pakistan were 120 for 4 or something. And [Cronje] came into the huddle and said ‘don’t worry about this. We’re going to win this one because they’re not trying to win it’. I’m thinking ‘where’s that coming from?’
“Two or three run outs straight to Jonty Rhodes… I looked at that [the collapse] and thought ‘nup, this can’t be right’. And I remembered those sort of conversations [with Cronje] and started to think all is not well,” Wessels said.
Cronje captained South Africa from 1994 to 2000. Under his captaincy, South Africa won 27 Tests out of 53 and 99 ODIs out of 138.
