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Inquest into South African cricket scandal gets under way |
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June 8, 2000
CAPE TOWN, JUNE 7 (AP) - South Africa's sports minister said Wednesday that an official inquiry into charges of cricket matchfixing should restore faith in the tarnished reputation of the sport.
The commission of inquiry, headed by retired Judge Edwin King, got under way in Cape Town on Wednesday, aiming to get to the bottom of the worst scandal in South African sports history.
"It is a very serious thing that we clean out South African cricket," Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour told reporters outside the hearing. "I have a lot of faith in the inquiry - that it is going to do its job properly."
The cricket scandal began in April when Indian police accused South African team captain Hansie Cronje and teammates Herschelle Gibbs, Nicky Boje and Pieter Strydom of fixing matches during a March tour to the subcontinent. The police said they had taped conversations Cronje made to bookmakers in which he had agreed to ask players to influence the outcome of matches.
Cronje's spiritual adviser said those tapes were authentic, but Cronje was simply playing with the bookmakers.
"There were certain people he did speak to and mention names of players, but it was a joke in a sense. He had no intention of making contact with the other players," The Star newspaper quoted Rhema Church head Ray McCauley as saying.
The other three implicated players, who have been subpoenaed by the commission, all say they are innocent.
Cronje, who was fired as captain of the South African team, has denied fixing a cricket match, but admitted to taking dlrs 8,200 from a bookmaker for providing match information during a triangular series with England and Zimbabwe earlier this year.
"He has to take responsibility for this, but I hope they look at it in the context of what is happening in other countries. I think he will disclose that there is a tremendous amount of this going on," McCauley was quoted as saying.
There was no sign of Cronje at the hearings, but his father, Ewie, was in attendance.
The hearings adjourned after King made his opening remarks, which set out the inquiry's terms of reference.
Among the first witnesses due to testify are Cronje's former teammates Pat Symcox, Daryll Cullinan and Derek Crookes.
The commission is scheduled to present interim findings by the end of June. It so far has subpoenaed 45 people - most of them Cronje's former teammates. Cronje is likely to appear, as is United Cricket Board chief Ali Bacher.
King said he did not have access to the tapes from India, and while he thought they would be important to his commission's investigations, they were not crucial.
The government was still talking to the Indian authorities to try to obtain the tapes, Balfour said.
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