OTD: Hansie Cronje was born in 1969

Hansie Cronje, who went from being one of the most respected captains in cricket to a pariah thanks to his admission of fixing matches, was born on this day, September 25, in 1969. He was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, to Ewie Cronje and San-Marie Cronje.

He graduated in 1987 from Grey College in Bloemfontein and was captain of their rugby and cricket teams. Cronje made his first-class debut for Orange Free State against Transvaal at Johannesburg in January 1988 at the age of 18. His South Africa Test debut came in 1992 against the West Indies in Barbados. His ODI debut came in 1992 as well, against Australia in Sydney in the World Cup that year.

After Kepler Wessels retired from the game in 1994, South Africa decided to hand the captaincy to the young Hansie Cronje, and he became one of the most respected and tactically sound leaders in cricket. He made South Africa a force to reckon with in the world, with wins over Pakistan, England, and Australia.

Cronje led South Africa to the quarter-final of the 1996 World Cup in Asia and the semi-final of the 1999 World Cup in England. This was also the start of the downfall of Hansie Cronje, as in March 2000, he was named as the kingpin of a match-fixing ring. It is reported that in 1996 Indian skipper Mohammad Azharuddin introduced him to a bookie called Sanjeev Chawla.

He was fired on April 11, 2000, after admitting to the South African board that he had accepted money for information but not match manipulation. However, in October, additional evidence of his culpability surfaced, and he was banned for life.

He was found to have offered money to Herschelle Gibbs, Micky Boje, and Piter Strydom for performing poorly in matches. After an inquiry by the King Commission, Cronje was banned for life from being involved in cricket.

Cronje played 68 Tests, scoring 3714 runs with six centuries and 23 fifties with a best score of 135 and an average of 36.41. He played 188 ODIs, scoring 5565 runs with two centuries and a best score of 112 and an average of 38.64. South Africa won their first ICC trophy in 1998 under his captaincy when they lifted the ICC Knockout Trophy in Bangladesh.

Cronje unfortunately passed away at the age of 32 on 1 June 2002, when he was on a plane from Johannesburg to George, which crashed into Cradock Peak, resulting in his and the two pilots’ deaths.

After Cronje’s death, conspiracy rumors that he was killed at the behest of a cricket betting syndicate took off. He was said to have been killed to conceal the truth about match-fixing.

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