JOHANNESBURG: Ewie Cronje, father of deceased former South African captain Hansie Cronje, has threatened legal action against the Indian police for filing a charge sheet which implicates his son in the 2000 match-fixing scandal.
The Indian authorities have brought charges against Cronje and five international bookmakers 13 years after the scandal that rocked the international cricket fraternity.
But a New Delhi court has ruled that charges against Cronje should be dropped because he died in a plane crash in 2002.
However, the original charge sheet alleges that Cronje received more than Rs 12 million in two payments from bookmaker Sanjeev Chawla but Cronje senior said Hansie had received less than a quarter of that amount.
“It’s nonsense. Where is the money?” Cronje told the Afrikaans daily ‘Beeld’ here.
“I’m considering legal action against the Indian police,” he added.
He said he plans to move court because the Indian police had known since 1981 that match-fixing was occurring, but did nothing about it.
“Then they made Hansie the scapegoat,” he said.
Cronje initially denied being involved in match-fixing, even convincing his then boss and South African cricket supremo Ali Bacher to dismiss the allegations by the Indian authorities.
Within days, Bacher announced Cronje’s suspension even as the South African government instituted the King Commission of Inquiry to investigate the allegations following a confession by Cronje.
The Commission ended inconclusively but Cronje was subsequently banned for life from cricket at all levels. -PTI
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