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Change Your Life! |
Public prosecutor offers Cronje, others indemnity for full disclosure |
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News |
June 11, 2000 JOHANNESBURG, JUNE 10 (AP) - Disgraced cricket players Hansie Cronje, Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams have been offered indemnity from criminal prosecution if they tell all about their alleged involvement in match fixing, an official said Saturday.
Sipho Ngwema, spokesman for the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions, said public prosecutor Bulelani Ngcuka offered the three the deal in a gesture aimed at ending corruption in South African cricket as soon as possible.
"We want to make sure that each person who participated in matchfixing is exposed," he was quoted as saying by the South African Press Association. "The condition is that Judge Edwin King must be happy that the testimonies (of the three) were frank and honest and that they participated with the commission fully."
Officials hoped that the offer would result in other people possibly involved being summoned to the commission, Ngwema said. Cases of other people who might come forward with information would be dealt with individually, he said.
Gibbs and Williams testified this week ahead of a commission investigating corruption in cricket that they had accepted Cronje's offers of dlrs 15,000 each to perform poorly in a March 19 match against India. Both said they reneged on the agreement and did not receive any money. Cronje has repeatedly denied fixing matches for money, though he has admitted taking dlrs 8,200 from a bookmaker in exchange for match information during a triangular series with England and Zimbabwe in South Africa. He was fired as team captain in April.
Cronje, who is expected to testify later in the hearings, faces a possible life-ban from cricket.
Gibbs and Williams both face disciplinary action by the United Cricket Board. Gibbs has been dropped from the national cricket team to tour Sri Lanka next month. Williams was not selected for the tour.
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