12/03/24
June 01, 2002
Hansie Cronjie: ex captain of South Africa at cricket died today in a plane crash, the third high profile cricketer to reach a premature and tragic end recently. Cronjie of course will now be lionised. He was banned for life recently for providing information to bookies, not only from playing but from participating in the game at all, even as a commentator. He had been a fantastic captain and had led South Africa to some remarkable victories, but no matter; he was dead meat as far as the cricket authorities were concerned. An appeal brought no leniency. He admitted everything, was a stand up guy, didn't flinch from the truth. Now his life ban has been served. He's dead. I wish he could have been shown a bit more compassion when he was alive.
posted by Fat Buddha to general at 05:10 PM - 2 comments
Oh, and they also beat Senegal and Uruguay in their warmups, and narrowly lost to Brazil, wtf?
posted by Mossy at 06:30 PM on June 01, 2002
Poor guy - he was just about to start back as a cricket coach (his ban was slightly alleviated). I agree its a shame that he will be remembered for the match fixing more than some great victories, but its a bigger shame he took that money. Still, with the pittance most cricket players get paid, its not surprising they get tempted, he was just unlucky enough to get caught.. There's obviously quite a bit of this going on - take Pakistan vs Bangladesh last World Cup for instance. Now, I'm a Bangladeshi, but no way in hell was that a fairly played game.. Oh, and surely Saudi Arabia aren't this bad?!?!?! Hell, they didn't even put in a tackle in the first half, and these are the guys that are meant to be the best in Asia! They beat teams like Iran who gave Ireland a good run for their money. I'm deeply suspicious..