By Henry Deedes
As Stephen Brenkley writes this morning, the ghost of Hansie Cronje still casts a dark shadow across the whole of South African cricket.
But whenever I think of Cronje, and the terrible decisions he chose to make in becoming involved with illegal bookmakers which led to his downfall, I can’t help think of a tale my father told me recently about his brief encounter with the man once seen as the saviour of South African cricket.
It took place during the mid 1990s during a holiday in Cape Town, not long after Mandela acceded the government of FW de Klerk.
My father was at a one-day game being held between Western Province and Cronje’s team, Free Orange State. Cronje, whose side had batted first, had posted a big score that day, and word around the pavilion was that the young batsmen would captain the national team one day, an achievement Cronje realised just a few years later.
With three balls remaining in the match, and Western Province needing eight runs to win, my father was half-way walking around the pitch (there were no grandstands there then) when the facing batsman smashed the ball skywards towards the boundary where he was standing.
Fielding in front of him was Hansie Cronje, who caught the ball before his back foot stepped back just over the boundary.
Now, there were only two people at that ground who knew the batsman was not out. One was my father, the other Hansie Cronje. Without a moment’s hesitation, Cronje raised his arms aloft, not to celebrate, but to indicate to the umpire that the ball had in fact gone for six.
It was quite the most extraordinary act of sportsmanship from Cronje, and one rewarded when Western Province then failed to get the further two runs required to win the match.
Then, fifteen years later or so Hansie chose to...well, sadly we all know the rest.
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