Lack of evidence against Cronje: Batohi

In the absence of crucial information from Indian authorities, disgraced South Africa former cricket captain Hansie Cronje cannot be charged with any crime, public prosecutor in the Justice King Commission of Inquiry Shamila Batohi said on Sunday.

Batohi, who was the evidence leader in King Commission of Inquiry, said in an interview that there is no evidence to show that Cronje had accepted a bribe, was involved in fradulent behaviour or had not disclosed all his earnings to the Receiver of Revenue.

Batohi, now head of the Special Police Unit Scorpions in KwaZulu-Natal, agreed with legal experts that Cronje's alleged match-fixing fell within the realm of moral indignation and was not a criminal offence.

It was an offence only in India and Indian authorities had failed to co-operate with the King Commission by refusing to pass over taped transcripts of conversations between an Indian bookmaker and Cronje, Batohi said.

The Delhi police had blown the lid off the match-fixing scandal last year claiming they had a taped conversation of Cronje with a bookmaker. Batohi had visited Delhi as part of her investigations in order to gather information from the Indian authorities.

At that time, Batohi had said the Indian authorities were very cooperative though she failed to secure a copy of the taped conversations.

However, in the interview to Sunday Tribune newspaper on Sunday, she said, "Cooperation from the Indian police was not forthcoming. In the end, even though Cronje had conditional indemnity, we are sitting with legal questions about what to charge him with.

"But this does not mean that at the end of the amnesty investigations there would not be criminal charges instituted against him. A decision will have to be taken by the National Prosecuting Authority," she said.

Cronje had been granted provisional amnesty during the Commission hearings subject to his speaking truth. In his final report Commission head Justice Edwin King however refused to give an opinion on whether Cronje had told the truth.

In light of reports that Cronje held 19 secret bank accounts and had not disclosed over 10.5 million rands of earnings during his tenure as captain, National Public Prosecutor Bulelani Ngcuka entrusted prosecutor of Western Cape Frank Kahn with the responsibility of investigating whether Cronje had told the truth to the King Commission.

The reports published in the Sunday Telegraph of London have been dismissed by Cronje as "a pack of lies".

Cronje, who admitted to having received money from bookmakers for providing pitch and weather information but denied having ever indulged in fixing matches, has challenged the life ban imposed on him in high court which will hear his application in Pretoria on September 26 and 27.

Cronje said the life ban was imposed without giving him an opportunity to defend himself.

Mail Cricket Editor