01x06 - Fallen Idol

[bunniefuu]

[foreboding music playing]

[woman] Marlon's interview, take one.

[commentator]

This is a huge shot by Hansie Cronje.

[crowd cheering]

[Marlon Aronstam] In South Africa

at that time, Hansie was a hero.

[commentator] Cronje has hit that miles.

Another big one.

If you've got a bat swing with the power

and timing of Cronje, that's the result.

Hansie's talent was extraordinary.

[commentator]

Hansie Cronje is beside himself with joy.

[Marlon] One of the greatest ever captains

in South African cricket history.

I should never have been able

to get close to him.

[atmospheric music playing]

[woman] The Delhi police has registered

a case of criminal conspiracy,

fraud, and cheating against South African

cricket captain, Hansie Cronje.

[Jonathan Agnew] Cronje?

It seemed completely impossible.

[Paddy Upton] Hansie was a hell

of a lot more than just the captain.

Next to Mandela, Hansie was probably

the next highest regarded citizen.

[Marlon] Hansie had everything.

So, what happened next was

sad.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Frams Cronje] If the tapes

made in New Delhi are correct,

it's the most devastating thing in cricket

in the last 100 years.

We knew how important winning was to him.

So he would never have thrown a match.

I have not received any money and I have

never ever spoken to any of the players.

I just thought it was a big joke,

to be honest. Not in a million years.

[Dr. Alli Bacher] Hansie Cronje is a man

of unquestionable honesty and integrity.

It's libelous.

It's defamatory.

[Frans] There's no worse crime

to commit in sport.

Could he really have done it?

[theme music playing]

[tense music playing]

[reporter] Four hundred and fifty people

have died in riots in South Africa

in the past ten months.

[reporter 2] Four million whites

ruled twenty million Blacks.

Apartheid is a political system designed

to ensure permanent white supremacy.

For the past 19 years,

the guerrilla leader,

Nelson Mandela,

has been a prisoner here on Robben Island.

[woman] We want our equal rights!

That is all. Nothing else!

People are being k*lled in South Africa.

[shouting]

[reporter 2] Most whites have never been

anywhere near a Black township.

Safely installed

in the comfortable suburbs,

they've been spared the reality

of life under the state of emergency.

[Frans] Me and my brother, Hansie, grew up

at the height of apartheid in Bloemfontein

in the '70s and '80s.

It was conservative.

Mainly white.

And also, from a racial point of view,

I think most of the people in Bloemfontein

accepted apartheid as the norm.

But us as a family

never supported apartheid.

We were in favor

of an integrated South Africa.

We didn't grow up wealthy.

Both my parents were teachers.

My dad was so involved in sport,

but he never put any pressure on us.

We could choose what we wanted to do.

And Hansie and me chose cricket.

[commentator] Hansie Cronje,

he's by far South Africa's best player.

[Hester Parsons] Hansie lived for cricket.

When we would play, uh, backyard cricket,

he would walk out,

lift his bat, thank the crowd.

[commentator]

Fabulous innings in the making here.

[Hester] I don't think

we had a conversation

without cricket being involved.

[crowd cheering]

[commentator] And that's a very good shot

indeed by Hansie Cronje. It's six.

Fantastic cricket!

[Allan] I met Hansie for the first time,

actually, at the cricket nets.

We became big friends from day one.

We just had this special bond.

He was almost How can I say this?

I don't want to do him injustice.

He was almost like

"I'm here. Look at me."

He had this aura about him

that sort of stood out.

[Hester] He wanted to represent

his country at international cricket.

That was his dream.

[Allan] He said it from when he was 15.

He wanted to lead South Africa.

He wanted to become

one of the greatest captains of all time.

[Frans] Unfortunately, in the '80s,

Hansie's aspirations were very limited

because we were banned

from international sport.

[reporter] South Africa is banned simply

because sport is based on the ethos

of play and competition

being fair and equal for all.

And that is not deemed possible

in this country which practices apartheid.

There was no future

in playing for your country.

But then

the nation changed.

[helicopter whirring]

[reporter 2] There's Mr. Mandela,

a man who has been in prison

for nearly three decades.

Taking his first steps

into a new South Africa.

[Frans] Mandela was freed,

we could get rid of apartheid.

The country had a new hope,

had a new life to it.

[Nelson Mandela] I greet you all

in the name of peace,

democracy, and freedom for all.

[crowd cheering]

South Africa has been readmitted

to international cricket

after more than 20 years

of sporting isolation.

[Frans] Suddenly, we were back

into international sport,

and a few months later,

Hansie was selected

to play for South Africa.

[chuckling]

It was a mixture of nerves and pride.

My father couldn't watch a full cricket

match because he'd just get so nervous.

[uplifting music playing]

South Africa were now on the world stage.

[commentator]

Welcome to the first day's play

of this test match between Australia

and South Africa. It's a lovely, fine day.

[Jonathan] South Africa at batting.

They are desperate to prove themselves

for all those lost years

when they were banned.

[commentator] That's a good shot.

Good innings by Hansie Cronje.

[Jonathan] But South Africa's

international experience was almost zero.

[man shouting]

[Jonathan] And their opponents, Australia,

the best in the world.

[commentator] What a catch!

Hansie Cronje gone

for a very well made 41.

Got him! What a ripper!

He made nine.

Out to seven.

- He's out!

- [Jonathan] Australia are winning.

[commentator]

The Australians absolutely jubilant.

And then the South African captain,

Kepler Wessels, breaks a finger.

[commentator] That is desperate luck

for the South Africans.

He's their top batsman

and their captain.

[Jonathan] In cricket, the captain

is more important than the coach.

All the strategy and the tactics

on the field are down to him.

So the game

is all but lost.

[commentator]

South Africa in dire straits.

[Allan] Our captain, Kepler,

couldn't go on the field.

So he looked around the room

and thought, "Who's it gonna be?"

[commentator] Cronje's acting captain

in his first service

in that department for his country.

[Allan] Hansie was a a young man.

He's a rookie in that team.

[commentator] South Africa all but gone.

How's he gonna handle a tense situation?

[commentator]

South Africa now in deep trouble.

You gotta be so spot-on tactically.

[Jonathan] As the fielding captain,

the young Cronje is given a situation

in which the best team in the world

need just 54 more runs

to win with six batsmen left.

For South Africa, it's game over.

Somehow, this young man had to keep

his team believing that they could win.

[Allan] Hansie just said,

"Nothing fancy. Do the basics well."

"The pressure that we bring

will get us there."

[announcer shouts]

We had a great start.

[commentator] That's a good delivery

from Donald and he's gone.

He's got him.

And South Africa break through again.

But then Australia started to hit a few.

- [commentator] What a good shot.

- [whistle blows]

[cheering]

And suddenly,

this test match is back on the tightrope.

But Hansie had this immense calmness

about him that I cannot explain.

[commentator] He's gone, a direct hit.

What an excellent throw

from Hansie Cronje.

And the South Africans strike back.

What a brilliant catch.

And what a great, fine bat this is.

Things are starting to get real tight.

[commentator] Got him!

South Africa have got it by one.

And South Africa

have pulled off a magical victory.

Oh, this is a marvelous moment

for South African cricket.

Hansie captained that

like he's captained 50 test matches.

Cronje somehow managed to claw a victory

from the very jaws of defeat.

The tears and the goosebumps at home,

seeing that and that victory,

it was unbelievable.

That match changed his life.

[crowd chanting] Hansie! Hansie! Hansie!

[Hester] People loved Hansie.

- [chuckling]

- This is paradise today.

[Hester] But it didn't really change

anything in our relationship

with each other.

It was always the same, always had time

for a joke, or, you know, a good laugh.

[music playing]

[singing indistinctly]

[others laughing]

[woman]

He was one of the greatest people I knew.

Gentle.

Caring.

[laughs]

I was married to Hansie for seven years.

I felt safe.

I never had to worry about anything.

He, um

It was like he had

everything under control.

[Mandela] The people of South Africa

have spoken in this election.

They want change.

And change is what they will get.

[crowd cheering]

[Frans] In the '94 elections,

Mandela became president.

Even though people had a sense of hope

and a sense of something new happening,

it was incredibly fragile.

[crowd chanting indistinctly]

Make a stand in your vote

with b*ll*ts and g*ns.

Make a stand in God's name.

This is God's Land.

This is the Promised Land!

[Frans] Many of the more

conservative white people

got themselves armed and organized

to be able to fight a civil w*r

if it should become necessary.

[Rory Stein] President Mandela,

the majority of white South Africans,

you know, myself included, in the past,

considered him to be a t*rror1st.

Our fears were that this could

so easily go up in flames.

And I mean that literally.

Sport can go where politics can't.

[indistinct chatter]

[all chuckling]

[Rory] For many white South Africans,

sport is really important.

If President Mandela

identifies with sport,

he will get white South Africans to say,

"Let's give him a chance.

Let's see where this goes."

"Where is this dream of his headed?"

[Allan]

1994 was the start of a pivotal time

for South African cricket.

It was almost captained and coached

by one bloke, and that was Hansie Cronje.

[hip-hop music plays]

Hansie said, "We are gonna be

the number one team

in test match cricket."

"The best, one-day,

international team in the world."

"And the fittest cricketing nation

on the planet."

Hansie set a bar for us

as an international team.

[commentator]

The South Africans were relentless.

Unbelievable. I just admire

their courage so very very much.

Cronje's tactics were masterly.

There's the captain

who's hardly put a foot wrong.

Everything that Cronje touched

turned to gold.

The game chose me ♪

Now I've been training for this

My whole life ♪

Carpe diem, seize the moment, right ♪

We won everywhere around the world.

We were taking the game

to the next level.

Never quit

Even though the thing's heavy ♪

We push like a 7-7 chevy ♪

Boy ready ♪

[commentator] Awesome shot.

Again.

Oh, yeah, well,

this is just wonderful wonderful stuff.

He has carried South Africa to victory

with the most amazing innings.

[Dr. Bacher] The country was moving

into a new direction.

Hopefully, equality for all people,

Black and white.

Nelson Mandela saw Hansie as a role model

to inspire other whites.

[Mandela] Sport has played

an important role in uniting our country.

I must congratulate in particular

Captain Hansie Cronje

for the excellent manner

in which he has led the national team.

[Allan] Hansie Cronje became so much more

than just a cricket captain.

He was anointed by Nelson Mandela

to be the man to somehow unify the nation.

[crowd cheering]

[Hansie] Ladies and gentlemen.

It gives me great pleasure,

from the team, to thank Mr. Mandela

for your immense contribution

in uniting this country

and forming a new South Africa

and granting us

the opportunity of playing sport.

[Allan] He was on a pedestal,

the like of which I don't think

I've ever come across before.

[crowd cheering]

[reporter] Who's your cricketing hero?

Oh, it's Cronje, favorite.

[reporter] Small boys the world over

have sporting heroes,

but for white men

to be heroes to Black people

in the country which made

oppression a God-ordained way of life,

that really is something.

You guys are now heroes in the townships.

What does that tell you

about how South African cricket is going?

I'm sure in five or six years' time,

it won't be predominantly white.

[Godlam Rajah] Hansie Cronje

came from the heart

of what I call apartheid land,

surrounded by people

who voted for the party

that locked Nelson Mandela away

for 27 years.

And yet, here I met a man

who thought like me.

He said to me, "Goolam,

I noticed that, again,

there's no Black players in the team."

He expected players of color to be there.

[Herschelle Gibbs] When I was selected,

people, you know, sort of joked.

They said, "You just fill a quota."

Yeah, but it's not gonna make a difference

because I was performing well.

I always knew

I was gonna play for a long time.

[Allan] Herschelle Gibbs

is of mixed-race from Cape Town.

During apartheid, Herschelle Gibbs

would not have been on the same field

as Hansie Cronje.

But he was there utterly on merit.

He was more than just good enough

to play cricket for South Africa.

He was a star.

At 22, you're basically

in awe of of the captain.

Hansie was so well-loved

and so well-respected

from his peers, that, uh

everybody would, you know,

run through a wall for him.

[crowd cheering]

You get captains that are different

because they read people really well

on and off the field.

He realized quite soon

what sort of character I was.

They could see that spontaneity

and that instinctiveness that I have.

Hansie brought

the best out of the players.

[Paddy] He was really connected

to the guys, easy to get on with.

But in four years,

I bought Hansie a lot of beers in pubs.

There might have been once when he dropped

his guard and he bought me one back.

He liked money.

He liked holding onto it.

[commentator] Knock the pants off them!

Hansie Cronje, this wonderful clean image.

He's just a sponsor's dream.

[Hester] All of a sudden,

he's earning more money than my dad.

Being more in the public eye,

he was more aware of how he dresses.

[commentator] Slip into a pair

of Hansie Cronje casual pants.

Hansie!

And you did notice it.

[commentator] Hansie Cronje,

easy to care for casual wear.

At that stage, he had millions

and millions of rands a year

from various sponsors and endorsements.

Getting easy money was was his weakness.

He wanted to do his utmost to get it.

[commentator] Hello and welcome

to the first day's play

of this fifth and final test match

between South Africa and England,

this time from SuperSport Park

in Centurion.

[Jonathan] This is a match that I still

can't quite get my head around.

And I don't think that anybody

who was there ever will, frankly.

[commentator] At Centurion Park,

as the England Team,

who won the toss of course,

Nasser Hussain leads his team out.

[Jonathan]

On the first day, South Africa batted.

And then, for the next three days,

it rained.

[thunder rumbling]

[commentator] And it really has been

very frustrating for everybody:

Players, umpires,

ground staff, commentators,

journalists, spectators.

[Jonathan]

So we arrived for the fifth day,

with only one team having batted.

And that team hasn't even finished

batting for the first time yet.

A result was impossible

because it was going to be a draw.

There was no time available

for there to be a result.

[commentator]

And now that we have got cricket,

what are we to make of it?

I think it will be a case a little bit

of going through the motions.

Such a pity because this match

promised so much.

Very, very frustrating.

Now, there is a situation in cricket

where if you are the batting captain,

you can simply

declare your innings closed.

Usually, that's done when you think

you've got enough runs to win the game.

But it wasn't something

that was gonna happen that day.

South Africa didn't have enough runs

to win the game.

So when we saw Nasser Hussain,

England's captain, running off the field

to talk to Hansie Cronje,

they surprised everybody.

[commentator]

I think we have a declaration.

We're not bluffing you, it has happened.

[Jonathan]

Word got out about what happened.

It was a negotiation.

Hansie Cronje said to Nasser Hussain,

"You forfeit your first innings,

we'll forfeit our second innings."

"We will set you

so many runs to win this match."

Hansie Cronje has offered England

an opportunity to try and win the game.

[commentator] I think it's terrific.

A a good gesture

from the two captains.

It, uh, creates interest

from a game that was stone-dead.

[Simon Wilde] In the press box,

there's general incredulity

that this had been done at all.

[commentator] There have never been

two forfeits before in a test match.

[Simon] There was no precedent.

In 125 years of test cricket,

it hadn't happened before.

[Herschelle] That was completely bizarre.

[chuckling] I didn't even know

you were allowed to do that in cricket.

[commentator]

And there comes the South Africans.

[Simon] England needs to score 249

to win the match.

[Allan] I thought,

"That is a very, very generous target."

The decision didn't sit well with me,

because not in a million years

would I give England

even a sniff of winning.

I I just wouldn't do it.

[commentator]

That is a good shot well-stopped.

Cronje, leading from the front.

The cricket that followed was a good game.

[commentator] That's four runs.

It's crashed away by Hussain.

[Allan] England really

got out the blocks quickly.

- [commentator] And that's four more.

- Then South Africa's on top.

- [commentator] In the air!

- [crowd cheering]

Brilliantly caught

by a diving Herschelle Gibbs.

And it was a very seesaw battle

at that stage.

[commentator] That is the breakthrough

that South Africa wanted.

Gone for a big one,

and it is a big one. It's six runs.

[Simon] England get to within

striking distance of the target.

[commentator]

Four more runs is gonna help a-plenty.

[Simon] England then stumble,

lose some late wickets.

[commentator] He's giving him out!

It went right down to the wire.

[commentator] What drama!

Pulled away back up for four,

and England win.

Hansie Cronje,

obviously disappointed in losing.

You can see that in his face.

[Allan] I rang him after the game

and he just said to me,

"It's a gamble I wanted to take."

"We could've been

on the other end of that."

You know, that's it.

It's captain's prerogative.

[Jonathan] I felt that Hansie Cronje

had done us all a favor

and done cricket a favor, frankly.

Rather than just consigning a game

to utter tedium,

he brought it to life.

[reporter] Hansie, it may seem odd

to say congratulations after a defeat,

but this has been a special day

for the game, I think.

I think the game needed it.

We owed it to the public

to get out and be positive,

and seeing that the players

wanna play cricket

[Simon] Captains did make

generous declarations to test cricket,

but never this generous.

[muted]

I was sufficiently intrigued

by the whole thing

that I went and spoke to some

of the England players back at the hotel.

I found out Cronje had made

three offers to Nasser,

and he reduced the target

by quite a bit actually by the time

he got to the one that England went for.

Didn't make sense at all.

Why had he done it?

[Marlon] I should never

have been able to get close to him.

My name is Marlon Aronstam.

I was a bookmaker in South Africa.

In the Centurion Test,

I was in a restaurant in Johannesburg.

And I said to somebody, "I have an idea.

Let's make this game alive."

"I'm gonna call Hansie

and tell him to declare."

You could make money on that event

if you knew

that it's gonna take place for sure.

I just dialed a telephone number,

which I still remember today,

which was 788-188.

It was the telephone number

of the South African Cricket Board,

I said, "Can I please have

Hansie Cronje's telephone number?"

They gave it to me.

[suspenseful music playing]

[ringing]

I called Hansie.

Told him I'm a business man

interested in cricket

and I'm prepared to make a donation to

charity if he can organize a declaration.

He was happy to talk to me.

"Come and see me."

I go up to his room.

He opens the door

and there's, uh like, a suite.

We sit in the lounge area

and we started to talk.

And he liked the proposal.

He said he would speak

to Nasser in the morning,

and they'll discuss the possibilities.

[commentator]

We're just gonna go through the motions.

I think it will be a case a bit

of going through the motions.

[Marlon] The next morning,

I have contact from Hansie

by text message at 9:30 in the morning:

Nasser's not interested.

[commentator] Such a pity

because, uh, this match promised so much.

Somewhere around 11:15 to 11:30

he sent me a message.

"The deal is on."

[commentator]

I think we have a declaration.

We're not bluffing you, it has happened.

[Marlon] I got in the car and rushed off

to Centurion to watch the match.

As Hansie started coming up the stairs,

and he sees me and he winks at me,

I knew the game's on.

It was an exciting game of cricket.

I probably won about 15,000 rand.

In U.S. dollars, at the time,

it probably was about 2,500.

I'd call that Mickey Mouse money.

Nasser didn't know we'd made a deal.

Had we known in the morning,

at nine o'clock,

that Nasser was gonna agree

we'd have started betting

that it will not be a draw.

We could've made a million rand.

[interviewer]

Did any money get given to charity?

No.

[interviewer]

It was a way of having him meet you.

I wanna answer all your questions

like you want them.

But you wanna go routes which is not

what I wanna go down that same route.

[interviewer] Okay. What happened next?

[intense music playing]

[Marlon]

We started to talk regularly after that.

We became friends.

When South Africa went off to India,

I told him that if ever he needs to know

where to go, go out to bars,

I think I said I can get somebody

to help him and show him around.

[man] Hansie! Hansie! It's me!

[Allan] Arriving in India, thousands

and thousands of Indian supporters.

It was immense. It really was immense.

[Simon] In India, cricket is massive.

Millions of people watch cricket.

It's a billion-dollar industry.

Wherever we moved, there was

thousands of people around the team

and they just wanted

to get a glimpse of what we look like.

That noise,

just the excitement and atmosphere.

[crowd roaring]

It was sensational to actually play

when the crowd is that big and that loud.

It was phenomenal.

And Hansie really loved it.

[reporter]

The noise here gonna create problems?

It was pretty quiet during test matches

but certainly gonna be noisy,

just gonna try and stay together

and communicate all the time.

[Marlon] Cricket in India is a religion.

The people's entertainment

is watching cricket and betting on it.

You can't place a bet in India on cricket,

not legally anyway.

But there is this vast network

of ill*gal bookmaking.

[Marlon] The market is huge.

The betting industry in India

is worth millions.

A lot of rich people putting

bets of $300,000 on a game of cricket.

The Indian market

bet who's gonna win the game.

And then they could get a bet on anything

to do with the game of cricket.

What will be the total runs

scored for the innings?

What will be the score of the 15-overs,

30-overs, and 50-overs?

One can bet on whether a player

walks on the field with a watch on or not,

with long sleeves or not.

Who's going to open the bowling

or who's gonna bowl number three?

[Marlon] They bet who won the toss.

[Simon] Bookies will try and influence

the situation in their favor.

So they target the captains

because they are

the most influential people on the pitch.

A cricket captain can ask a groundsman

for a particular type of pitch,

you're involved in selection,

so you can affect who plays,

put his fielders where he likes.

He can decide who bowls when.

He has huge amount of control in a way

that doesn't apply in any other sport.

So if you want to influence things,

then the captain is head and shoulders

above everyone else

in terms of the guy

you should be aiming for.

I told Hansie I can set him up to meet

somebody in India and, the next morning,

I spoke to Hansie.

And he was on the bus

and he just said to me,

"Forget it. We're not doing anything."

Hansie wanted to win

in the subcontinent, in India.

[commentator] Great shot

and the end of the match.

He's taken it away with a six.

South Africa has won the game.

For South Africa to go to India and win

was a remarkable achievement.

[woman] Well done.

[Jonathan] The team came back from India

to a hero's welcome.

[boy] Could you sign this whole page here?

And all seemed well.

[both laughing]

Hansie.

[Bertha] When Hansie came home,

he just didn't want to talk about cricket.

He said he wanted to just relax

and leave that at the office.

[Bertha laughing]

For me, the cricket took him away.

You know, I think I remember there was

one year that he was at home 28 days.

So time together was precious.

We had just moved

into our house by the sea.

I remember we were

on our way to go to the beach.

It was something new for us,

coming from Bloemfontein.

We can go to the beach,

it's right there, and, um

the phone rang.

And all I can remember

hearing him say, "It's rubbish."

The Delhi police has registered

a case of criminal conspiracy,

fraud, and cheating against certain

individuals of Indian nationality

and the South African

cricket captain Hansie Cronje.

[reporter] Cronje and three other members

of the national team

are alleged by Indian authorities

to have been involved in match-fixing

during South Africa's

recent tour of India.

Captain Hansie Cronje

was approached to throw a match in India.

[reporter 2] Allegations

that national captain Hansie Cronje

was involved in match fixing

in the recent

one-day series against India.

[Bertha] He said it's not true,

doesn't know where it comes from.

But I could see that

he was really upset about this.

[inquisitive music playing]

Cronje?

It seemed to be completely impossible.

I was shocked about the statements

that the Delhi police was making.

Hansie Cronje

[Allan] I just thought it was a big joke,

to be honest.

And, uh, I couldn't get a hold of Hansie.

I immediately rang his brother.

We just all thought

this is absolutely absurd.

It can't be true.

And Hansie also said, "No, it's not true."

So that's it. You know, finished.

[Godlam] I got a call

from the South African Cricket Board.

It was Dr. Ali Bacher, and Ali said to me,

"What do you know about this?"

I said, "Ali, it's the first time

I'm hearing of it."

"Now as I'm seeing it."

"You mean you don't know anything?"

I said, "I swear I don't know anything."

The allegations are outrageous.

Hansie Cronje is a man

of unquestionable honesty and integrity.

I'm absolutely certain not one

of our players would ever contemplate

being involved in match-fixing.

[reporter] I was wondering,

could you describe

Hansie Cronje's character for us?

I said early on, he is a man

of unquestionable integrity and honesty.

It's libelous.

It's defamatory.

[reporter] There's been indignation

and disbelief across South Africa

that Indian police

could accuse Cronje of being involved

in what they've described

as a massive international crime.

The South African government

has sent a firmly worded "please explain"

to their Indian counterparts,

demanding access to the telephone taps

that allegedly implicate Cronje

with the match-fixing masterminds,

one of whom is now under arrest,

claiming to have organized

the half-million-dollar scam.

We are saying that our players

are innocent until proven guilty.

Just like any other person.

[Simon] It was a mistake.

Didn't make sense at all.

Why were the police in India

bugging the phones of a cricketer?

My name is Pradeep Srivastava.

And I was Deputy Commissioner

of Police Crime Branch

in Delhi Police in the year 2000.

The Crime Branch

looks after more serious crimes.

Extortion, kidnapping, k*lling.

We started working on some extortion case.

Permission was given to permit recording

of the calls of suspected criminals.

Technology was actually very raw.

Two wires and cassette attached to that.

No one knows what time anyone can call,

so two persons round the clock

listening to the phone.

[tape deck clicks]

[Pradeep]

This was one of the most unusual things.

Instead of finding any extortion racket,

it is something else which is going on.

[Ishwar] What we're hearing is,

you invest so much,

how much you have invested,

how so and so player is playing

or how we will play.

Why did you not lift the ball up?

Why did you not take the catch?

[tape deck clicks]

They are not talking

of terrorism or extortion.

They are talking about cricket.

[tape deck clicks]

There were two parties.

One was speaking

in a very accentuated foreign accent.

But this voice, I could not recognize.

[tape deck clicks]

I took the cassette home.

I kept it in my study

where we have the music system.

My children were

very keen fans of cricket.

That night, they asked me,

"Why do you have, uh,

Hansie Cronje's, uh, voice

on the recorder?"

And what had happened

a couple of days back,

Hansie was speaking on the television.

India's playing good cricket

at the moment

[Pradeep] They had remembered

his style of speaking,

his pronunciation, his accent.

So this was, without doubt,

a communication related to

the ongoing cricket matches.

Tapes were being recorded

more intently now.

There is an Indian party.

And they have asked him

to do certain things.

I was surprised.

Hansie Cronje was one of the most

important cricketers of that time.

So getting anything on him

was a very major breakthrough.

- Hi. How are you?

- [reporter] You won't talk to us now?

I I've got an interview

at, uh, seven o'clock tonight.

The next four days, the demand

for information on Cronje was massive.

The only theory

that I think will clear my name,

is if you speak to the players

and if you, um, check my cash,

bank accounts.

I have not received any money and I have

never ever spoken to any of the players.

[Frans] Hansie was not himself.

We realized the tension that he was under.

My dad called Hansie

and said, "What's happening?"

Hansie said, "No, Dad, don't worry

about it. There's nothing in this."

And then they said, "Goodbye."

And my dad forgot to put his phone off.

So his phone was still on and he turned

to my mother and he said to my mother,

"I think Hansie is lying.

I think he was involved in something."

And Hansie heard my dad saying it.

[tense music playing]

[Rory] Around this time,

Australia are playing in South Africa.

I was providing security.

And both teams are in the same hotel.

Half past two in the morning,

the phone rings.

"Rory, it's Hansie.

Could you please come up to my room?"

Over the years, Hansie and I

have become quite good friends.

I ran upstairs.

And all the lights are on in his suite.

There's a kit bag packed.

And as I walk in, he's holding up

this piece of paper towards me.

It was a handwritten statement.

He seems uptight, emotional,

saying to me that some of the stuff

that is being said in the newspapers

is actually true.

All he wanted to do was get away.

I convinced him we need

to get the team manager up there.

This was serious. It was expl*sive.

He needs to speak to him.

I can't believe this.

Not Hansie.

I looked at him

and I saw a face that I never saw before.

I said to him,

"I will never talk to you again."

[Dr. Bacher] At three o'clock

this morning, I was phoned.

Goolam Rajah handed the phone

over to Hansie Cronje

who said to me that, um

he had not been honest

with regard to these allegations.

[reporter]

Cronje putting his hand up

and making the admission

that he'd accepted money.

But he continues to deny match-fixing.

[Ali] Let us say unequivocally

that we in South African cricket

are shattered.

We will say unequivocally

that the United Cricket Board

and the government have been deceived.

[reporter 2] This is a real bombshell.

[reporter 3] It's a startling revelation.

[reporter 4] News of Hansie Cronje's

dismissal as the South African captain

is now starting to filter out

across the country

and is being met with utter disbelief.

No matter what they say about him,

I will always support Hansie.

He should be accountable for what he did.

I wouldn't believe

he has done such a thing but,

if he has, it's a big regret.

This was massive.

- Not guilty.

- [kids] Not guilty.

[Allan] As kids

we wanted to set

ourselves up as role models.

Now you're telling me this.

Next to Mandela, Hansie was probably

the next highest regarded citizen.

It was a huge deal.

[Ali] He's brought shame

to the game quite clearly.

[reporter] So why did Cronje

apparently lie in his first statements?

[Ali] It's not clear exactly

what his confession involved.

[Simon] If it goes any further,

it's the most devastating thing

in cricket in the last 100 years.

[Allan] Now what's next?

Was I part of something

that shouldn't have happened?

How serious is this thing?

There were so many unanswered questions.

The nation had to know what was going on.

[man]

The integrity of the game is at stake.

- [man 2] There will be questions asked.

- [Jon] Is he now telling the truth?

[man 3]

We need to get to the bottom of this.

[reporter] It's the first day

of a special inquiry

taking place in Cape Town.

The former South African cricket captain,

Hansie Cronje, has already admitted

taking money from a bookmaker,

but he's denied trying to fix the matches.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Simon] We got a couple of days' notice

Cronje was gonna appear.

There was cameras, journalists.

We were waiting to be allowed in.

And he'd been spirited into the building

without anyone having a chance to see him.

I was sent to report on this.

A nation gripped on the day

that Cronje appeared to give his evidence.

[Frans]

It was going to be a closed commission.

But in the end, they decided

it's going to be live on television.

You can't describe how tough it was.

[Jonathan] He was given immunity

from prosecution,

so therefore he couldn't go to prison.

What was he going to say?

How much would he say?

How is he going to explain it?

We were all waiting.

[woman] I'm going to deal

with the Centurion issue now.

First, the call

you received from Mr. Aronstam.

Mr. Aronstam was a stranger to you,

and on your own evidence,

you had not previously

heard of or spoken to him.

Why were you prepared

to invite him up to your room?

Mr. Aronstam said to me

that, um, he was a cricket lover

and he was interested in getting a match

on at Centurion the following day,

and he had a suggestion

and he wanted to meet me.

I didn't realize it was quite so easy

to meet the national captain off the side.

Did it ever occur to you

that Mr. Aronstam's interest

in making a game of it might

actually benefit him in his gambling?

It may have done but, I mean, what

What good can it do when you're not sure

what the end result is going to be?

[man] I think

it will help immensely, Mr. Cronje.

That could be very, very meaningful

information to somebody who is interested

in betting on the outcome

of the game, surely.

[interviewer] Was Centurion fixed?

Define the word "fixed." The act?

The final outcome? Definitely not.

Because when you know the outcome,

you know for sure what's gonna happen.

To this day, I've never known for sure

in a cricket game what's gonna happen.

[Simon] It was fixed,

because there should be

three results possible,

South Africa win, England win, a draw.

But Cronje was determined that the draw

would not be one of those three options.

That that's a fix, surely.

[Jonathan] He interfered with it.

He manipulated the game.

So why did he do it?

After the game, I had a leather jacket,

which I bought for my wife,

but I bought the wrong size.

I brought the jacket.

I said, "I've got a nice present

for you to give to Bertha."

I gave it to him

with 50,000 rand in a bank bag.

And that money was paid

for future information to come.

[Hansie] Uh, I wasn't expecting to receive

any money from Mr. Aronstam.

So when he gave you 50,000 rand,

you must have been absolutely shocked.

I thought this was

a very generous man, yeah.

[Jonathan]

Cronje admitted to taking money.

But the picture was much bigger

than that match at Centurion.

[Marlon] I didn't ask for immunity

for giving evidence.

I've got nothing to hide.

[man] If I read your statement correctly,

"As I was leaving, Mr. Cronje said to me,

how is it possible for him

to make any money out of cricket?

I replied by saying,

'The ball is in your court.'"

Is that statement correct?

One thousand percent correct.

[Marlon]

I called friends of mine afterwards.

I said, "I've been telling you

for a long time cricket could be crook."

"I'm telling you it is crook.

I've just come out of Hansie's room.

The man's offered to throw cricket games."

He started to explain what he could do.

He could lose a game.

"The best way to make money

is to lose a game."

[Marlon] I told Hansie, I can set him up

to meet somebody in India.

And he said to me,

"Forget it. We're not doing anything."

And we didn't know why,

which we found out afterwards why.

He had met another party

and they had offered him a lot more money.

[reporter] It must send shock waves

through the whole cricket world,

and you've got to wonder

[man] I'm devastated.

Everybody trusted Hansie.

[man 2]

And it's just extremely disappointing.

[Bertha] Every day when he got back,

he didn't want to talk or want to eat.

He would climb in his bed

and try to sleep.

In the middle of the night,

I had to change the sheets of the bed

because it was so

it was wet from his, um

his perspiring so much.

I used to write Bible verses on little

pieces of cotton and put it on the mirror,

so when he shaved he could look at them.

But nothing could reassure him.

At one stage I just asked him,

"Is there anything else, um

that you need to say? Because, you know,

you you haven't been completely honest."

[reporter] When Herschelle Gibbs,

in the light-colored suit,

arrived for day two of the inquiry

into corruption in the game,

only a few knew of the massive body blow

he was about to deliver

to South African cricket.

[Herschelle]

The morning of the King Commission,

I remember walking into the court.

It was properly full.

Man, I was nervous.

[reporter]

Gibbs sat nervously inside the hall

before television cameras were excluded

for his sensational testimony.

[Herschelle]

We were in the hotel in India.

I get a knock on the door

and Hansie walks in.

I'm not sure even

how the conversation started.

He said, "Look, I've got a mate

that wants to offer you $15,000

if you'd score less than 20."

And within like a split second,

within a split second,

I said, "Yes." You know, I said, "Fine."

He realized what sort of character I was,

and I was happy to do anything

at least once

without even knowing

or thinking of the consequences.

Then he turned to Henry Williams,

my roommate.

He said, "I'll do it as well."

Two minutes later,

Hansie's gone out the door.

Now I'm looking at Henry

and he's looking at me and we're going

You know, we don't really know

what to say to one another.

From the hotel room to the field

it was quite a long drive.

I had a lot to think about.

The crowds are very intimidating.

I got to the field,

and I didn't know what to do.

[crowd roaring]

[dramatic music playing]

I said to myself,

"No. I'm not going to go through with it."

You know, and I end up getting 74.

Henry only bowled like three overs

and got injured.

He went off the field.

We won the game.

About a day or two afterwards,

Hansie said to me,

"That particular person, my friend,

he lost about 20 million dollars,"

apparently, in that game.

[Simon] It's the blackest mark

against him, really, in the whole story.

He tried to corrupt

two young, non-white players,

Henry Williams and Herschelle Gibbs.

And that's about as bad a thing

you can do in South Africa.

He went against everything that Cronje's

role was supposed to involve, really,

which is nurturing a multicultural team

in multicultural South Africa.

[Jonathan] He put both their careers

absolutely on the line,

and they both were suspended.

That was a really worrying insight

into Cronje's tactics.

But I honestly don't think

that Cronje was a bad man,

and for him to be reduced

to putting so much pressure

on Gibbs and Williams,

I think illustrates actually

the sort of pressure that he was under

and how tight those bookmakers

were turning the screw.

[Simon] The evidence

of the King Commission is that bookies

will often give the players something,

seemingly, for nothing.

Easy money,

and you think, "Well, why not?"

[attorney] Now,

what I'm trying to figure out is why

you have an offer of $30,000

to ensure that you lost

when that was almost a certainty anyway.

I was trying to rationalize to myself,

um, when I took the money,

that this was in fact a very stupid

uh, bet.

I really couldn't understand why

somebody would give me 30,000 U.S. dollars

for a match that I thought

we were going to lose anyway.

[Jonathan] Once you've taken

the money from bookmakers

well, you've had it, really.

I mean, you are totally open to blackmail.

I'm told that once the bookies got you,

they got you for life.

[Simon] Essentially, the story began

within six months of becoming captain.

Which was astonishing, really.

It seemed incredible

that it had gone back so far.

[attorney 2]

Have you disclosed everything?

Yes.

I cannot tell you

the huge shame that it's caused me,

the great passion I have for my country,

great passion I have for my teammates,

and the unfortunate love I have for money.

I do like money.

I'm not trying to get away from that.

Yes.

I accepted money from bookmakers.

Yes, I was trying

to feed them information.

But I promise you

every time I walked onto the field

I gave my all for South Africa.

[dramatic music playing]

[Hester] I couldn't believe it.

And I still can't believe it.

But I wish I had known.

Because then you would've been

there for him more often.

Sorry. [sniffles]

[Frans] At the end of that process,

Hansie got banned for life.

[attorney 2] Mr. Cronje,

thank you.

[dramatic music continues]

[Frans] After breaking down,

there was a small room,

and he just fell on his back.

And he just lay there

and he broke down crying.

He absolutely wept.

And he said, "Sorry."

He said it a hundred times.

And he wanted to make it right.

[Bertha] Hansie loved cricket.

And he lost that.

And it took him a long time

to get back on his feet.

But after two years I could see

that the old Hansie was coming back.

He was enjoying things again.

He was living his life.

Hansie had a job

at a company in Johannesburg.

I was excited to have him

home for the weekend.

Hansie phoned and said

he's gonna miss his flight.

And then he said to me

he managed to get on another flight.

Seven o'clock came and nothing,

and by eight o'clock I thought,

"No, something is seriously wrong."

[reporter] Breaking news,

some tragic news from South Africa.

[reporter 2] The former South Africa

cricket captain, Hansie Cronje,

has been k*lled in a plane crash.

[reporter 3]

The plane carrying Hansie Cronje

was trying to land in poor weather

when it came down high

in a mountain range

in the Western Cape province.

[Bertha] It was like a a nightmare.

I was in such a

daze.

[man] Put a hand out to one another.

All of our hearts are aching.

I was overwhelmed

with the reaction of the people.

[crowd chanting] Hansie! Hansie! Hansie!

Hansie! Hansie! Hansie!

Hansie! Hansie! Hansie!

[crowd cheering]

[Mandela]

Hansie Cronje was one of the greatest

cricket captains in our country.

And, uh, he literally made us walk tall.

[Bertha]

Even through everything that happened,

nobody actually forgot who he was.

They remembered his heart

like I knew his heart,

and that he was a good person.

[crowd cheering]

[Herschelle]

He lived by the mistakes he made.

Jeez, he didn't k*ll anybody.

I mean, f*ck it.

He didn't k*ll anyone.

[Frans] If it wasn't for forgiveness

and repentance,

we wouldn't be here in South Africa,

because we would've k*lled each other.

We went through a Truth and

Reconciliation Commission politically

where people who m*rder*d other people

based on their political beliefs

were acquitted.

They were forgiven,

and they're serving in government.

[gentle music playing]

And I think it

it shows the nation we are.

[voice breaks] We're a nation that

can stand together when it matters.

And I certainly stood behind Hansie.

Sorry.

[sniffles]

[closing theme music playing]