Durban (South Africa) - There is a picture on the front page of the United
Cricket Broad's first official magazine that shows Hansie Cronje in
profile and facing Steve Waugh.
Launched a week ago, the magazine "Cricket!" is part of the new UCB's
marketing strategy with the Challenge Series limited-overs matches against
Australia projected as the defining moment of the Millennium Season.
Now the marketing machine has an even tougher job as the man who led South
Africa to more success on the field than anyone else, who was seen as the
perfect role model for all aspiring youngsters and typified
upright New South Africa nationalism has fallen from grace. Whether he has played
his last game for South Africa is a question which only the government
inquiry into the match-fixing affair is likely to reveal.
He has left the game under a cloud of suspicion
as the New Delhi police's probe into match-fixing allegations appears to be confirmed by
his suspension by the UCB.
Cronje is know to earn about R25 000 a month as part of his now suspended
contract and with endorsements, match-fees and performance bonuses as
well as other perks, there seemed no need to dabble in the murky underworld
inhabited by the shadowy bookmakers.
It has not just tainted his image but also the ethics which are
supposed to make the sport an example of modern chivalry and honesty.
Corruption is an ugly a word as you would find in the Engish language and
it seems that seduction by the additional wealth is part of that
corruption.
Since he took over from Kepler Wessels in the Test series against
New Zealand in November 1994, Cronje led South Africa in 45
Tests, winning 22 of them.
His limited overs record is even more impressive winning 99 out of 138 matches at the
helm. His 100th victory might have been in the
three-match series against Steve Waugh's Australians that starts tomorrow.
Born Wessels Johannes Cronje on September 25, 1969, and given the name,
Hansie, which was also that on an honoured uncle, he had a steady rise
through the ranks. There was captaincy of South African Universities against
Mike Gatting's rebels in 1990 and 20 months later being a member of the
non-playing "development group" which went to India on the historic visit
of November 1991.
Even when he went to the World Cup and then the West Indies in 1992, there
was no hint that he might emerge as the country's future captain; that honour
seemed to belong to Mark
Rushmere. As the Eastern Province man's form waned, however, Cronje's remained
steady, although he failed to make the first Test of the series against
India at Kingsmead.
Recalled for the second match of what was known as the "friendship series"
Cronje played what was one of the most impressive single figure innings
seen in a Test in this country, after South Africa wre left a groggy 31 for
five on the first morning of the match at the Wanderers.
Cronje's name first emerged as a possible captain during the 1993
Total triangular series and he was official vice-captain later that year
when the side went to Sri Lanka.
Bleary-eyed South Africans watched him at Sydney in the New Year Test (the Bushfire Test it
has been called). There was a battle to
win the series at Adelaide but South Africa's batting frailities, and
Darrel Hair's trigger finger, saw the series levelled 1-1.
From that point it was a matter of time when Cronje would take over from
Wessels. There were rumours Wessels did not want tour England in 1994 and
was persueded days before the tour that it was in South Africa's best
interests that he do so.
Cronje's lack of form during that tour saw Wessels, with Bob Woolmer as the
new coach, take the side on to a fruitless limited-overs series in Pakistan
where nothing went right. Cronje
was made captain for the remainder of that summer.
He led South Africa to a convincing 2-1 win over New Zealand after losing
the first Test at the Wanderers and then went to New Zealand where they
beat the Kiwis in the only Test but failed to iimpress in the limited-overs
series.
From that point Cronje's success has been impressive against
India, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka. The 5-0 whitewash of a West Indies side
which was a pale shadow of what it had been, showed his team's all-round
strength. There were Test setbacks against the Australians and Pakistan.
Last year's World Cup elimination against Australia in the semi-final at
Edgbaston in Birmingham, England was a body blow to his ambitions of
leading the hosts in the 2003 tournament.
There was no mistaking his passion for the game and his love for the side
he had led, often with distinction; his captaincy had improved to the
extent that Steve Waugh, the Australian captain, admitted that playing
against South Africa had always added that extra dimension to his game.
While he does not, quite yet, ride off in to the sunset, his future is
certianly uncertain while police in New Delhi feel a certain
vindication.