|
 |
 | | | You are in: Cricket |
|
| | Saturday, 1 June, 2002, 12:35 GMT 13:35 UK Cronje killed in plane crash Cronje was among three who perished in the crash Former South Africa cricket captain Hansie Cronje has been killed in a plane crash in the country's Western Cape province. The plane, carrying three passengers, crashed outside the city of George, about 500 kilometres east of Cape Town. "We have heard the news, we are still trying to recover. It's a shock." said sports ministry spokesman Graham Abrahams. "He (Cronje) was killed. We can confirm that." Cronje's brother, Frans, said the plane crashed in bad weather. "It was raining and they crashed into the side of a mountain," he said.
Relatives of the 32-year-old said the plane left Johannesburg for George early Saturday morning but was unable to land due to poor weather conditions and crashed at about 0500 GMT (0600 BST). It appears the pilot tried to circle before landing but crashed in the rugged Outeniqua mountains. The South African Press Association quoted doctors at the crash site as saying the two others on board the plane had also died. Their identities were not immediately known. Officials from the United Cricket Board of South Africa spoke of their great sadness at Cronje's death. UCB president, Percy Sonn, said: "Hansie was an excellent cricketer and a very popular and successful captain, who led his team to some great achievements. "He gave much to cricket in this country during his career."
The decision was later endorsed by the game's governing body, the International Cricket Council, after he admitted to taking money to fix matches involving South Africa. Cronje sparked the matchfixing scandal after Indian officials said they had tape recordings of him talking with an Indian bookmaker during the team's tour of the subcontinent. Several teammates later told a government commission that Cronje conveyed to them an offer in 1996 of up to $350,000 (�180,000) to lose a one-day game against India. Cronje denied that, but admitted receiving $100,000 (�68,000) from gamblers in exchange for match information and conveying other offers from gamblers to teammates to perform badly. But his priest, Pastor Ray McCauley, reflected the other side of his character after hearing the news of his death. "He was a person with a huge, big heart and whenever I rang him he would go with me to orphanages and schools," he said. "Once the match-fixing broke and he was not allowed to play cricket again, he took it on the chin and never complained about it." | |
Internet links:  The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top Cricket stories now: Links to more Cricket stories are at the foot of the page. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|  | | | | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |
|  E-mail this story to a friend |
| |
| Links to more Cricket stories |
| | | ||
 | ||||
 | | Back to top
| ||
| ------------------------------------------------------------ BBC News >> | BBC Weather >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMIII | News Sources | Privacy |
