His whole testimony and evidence at the King Commission was untruthful. He was, I think, genuinely without conscience. You cannot be in his position and behave in the way he did if you have a conscience: you simply wouldn't sleep at night.

He displayed no remorse for his actions, and even later appealed against the charges levelled against him. What emerged at the King Commission, Noakes believes, was incomplete, at best.

Match fixing may have been more prevalent within South African cricket, at a far earlier time, than has ever been revealed.

Noakes speaks of a moment in a game in when, like most observers at the time, he didn't make the connection. Now he sees the moment differently.

Then, between overs, the two batsmen had a long conference. When they finally resumed, one hit a ball straight to a fielder on the boundary.

When he got back to the dressing room, he sat down next to me and said: 'I quit out there. Did it look like it? Another event Noakes found peculiar at the time was the decision by several team members to make an uncomfortable, hour-long bus trip to a clothing shop in downtown Karachi on the evening before a game.

They appeared to do little more than browse through nick nacks and receive some free clothing. The coincidental presence of several members of an opposing team at the same store made the occasion even odder.

Perhaps the full story of the match-fixing scandal that came close to destroying world cricket may never be revealed. Noakes is in no doubt as to why that might be: 'There are people who are in denial for different reasons to Andrew Hudson.

They don't want to be exposed. They are fearful for themselves and for the effect the truth would have on the game, both nationally and internationally.

It could be terminal. That's why administrators as well as players keep quiet. As soon as the really telling information started coming through at the King Commission it closed up immediately.

Kepler Wessels said before the commission even began that it would be a cover-up. Judge King described Wessels's comments as 'impertinent' and promptly subpoenaed him to appear, which he was never required to do.

Wessels and Cronje, who went to the same school, were once extremely close, more like brothers than team-mates.

But their friendship had curdled long before Cronje died; Wessels later alienated himself from much of Afrikaner society when he criticised Cronje's batting form and often cautious captaincy.

Wessels knew that Cronje was being corrupted by the limitless power bestowed on him by Ali Bacher and the South African cricket board.

Now, however, Wessels is guarded, even taciturn, on the subject of his former vice-captain. He's dead now. Leave it alone for the good of the game and his family.

All I can say is that cricket must remain on its guard against match-fixing for as long as the game is played.

It is one thing to assume Cronje's deeds, however nefarious, are gone, but something else altogether to allow them to be forgotten.

I knew something was wrong in England. I called some senior people involved and tried to find out what was going on.

They all agreed something was badly wrong, but wouldn't do or say anything. I couldn't believe it. People were scared of him.

But cricket administrators don't want to know. They want it all to go away. The truth would be devastating. As long as match-fixing can be portrayed as a serious but isolated problem they believe the game will recover.

In South Africa, meanwhile, pictures of Cronje remain on office desks, statues are erected in his honour, teammates proclaim his virtues, his image is emblazoned across T-shirts, and the making of his martyrdom continues to grow.

Cronje had said the team 'laughed it off. He submits an affidavit, accusing the UCB of interfering with his personal life and his attempts to earn a living.

Nelson Mandela: 'Here was a young man courageously and with dignity rebuilding his life after the setback he suffered a while ago.

The manner in which he was doing that promised to make him once more a role model of how one deals with adversity.

Former England captain Mike Atherton: 'None of us should be judgmental, for no man has a cupboard empty of skeletons.

The tragedy of his early death is that he will be denied the redemption his Christianity would have demanded.

Australia Test captain Steve Waugh: 'I always admired Hansie as an opponent and enjoyed his friendship. Hansie was not just the captain of the South African side, he was a natural leader, a man who could inspire his nation to greater honors, a great career was left unfulfilled, the game became a laughing stock and the entire cricketing community was shamed.

Cronje was not just a player; he was an ambassador to the sport. Debuting in the WC, Cronje was the sort of all-rounder, a captain would ideally like.

His first appearance in the WC yielded moderate results, but the talent was never in doubt. The Indians were to witness his all round skills when they toured South Africa.

Allan Donald then created havoc to help South Africa register their first Test victory since re-admission. Cronje then scored a fine to help South Africa trounce Sri Lanka by an innings and runs in September ; this was South Africa's first Test win abroad post apartheid.

A quality upbringing aided with strong mental fitness was to help Cronje take up responsibilities at an early age. He was made the skipper of Orange Free State at a very early age and steered them to handsome results in the domestic competitions.

International commitments meant that Hansie was not present all along but his inspired captaincy was never in question. Cronje was appointed as the vice-captain to Keplar Wessels for the tour of Australia in He was 24 then, the youngest in the squad.

Injury to Wessels on the final morning at Sydney meant that Cronje took charge and piloted his troops to a stunning win defending a paltry Adelaide was the venue where Cronje captained full time and he was brought back to earth as Australia triumphed by a hefty margin.

Cronje struggled against the seam and swing movement in England during the summer of but the seeds of captaincy had already been sown and Cronje was appointed as the full time skipper in An inspiring presence on the field, Cronje was a hard nosed leader who barely showed any emotions.

His captaincy was astute while his backing for the players led him to be a respected figure in South African domestic circles.

Greg Mathews is one of the many players who fondly remember Cronje for being able to play cricket at the highest level.

A composed captain, Cronje barely showed his anger on the field of play, managing to stay firm in the face of adversity, which he so famously displayed when South Africa tragically crashed out of the WC.

His composure did snap at times when he angrily threw a stump at the umpire's cabin after Mark Waugh was ruled not-out during the tour of Australia.

This woman is none other than Bertha Cronje now Du Plessis. Bertha is the daughter of parents — Father Kosie Pretorius who is a retired math teacher and mother Elize Pretorius who reside in Bloemfontein.

The couple is now parents to two children. He was just Two years earlier, Hansie Cronje's admission that he took bribes from bookmakers to provide information and fix matches exposed the extent of a corruption scandal that cricket authorities had signally neglected to confront.

At first he had hotly denied charges levelled by the New Delhi police, who during a phone-tapping operation in March heard him conspiring with an Indian bookmaker, Sanjeev Chawla, to predetermine performances.

And such was his standing as a player, captain and sporting ambassador for post-apartheid South Africa that few in the cricket world doubted him, preferring to heap scorn on the Indian investigation.

Then, four days after the accusation, Cronje confessed in a 3 a. He was immediately stripped of the captaincy, as his side prepared for a oneday series against Australia, and in subsequent testimony to the government-appointed King Commission revealed, sometimes in tears, further details of his involvement with bookmakers in match-fixing.

The cricket world listened agog as much as aghast. The game's reputation, it seemed, was at an all-time low. Cronje's life and career were in tatters.

It had been so different a decade earlier when, aged 21, he was given the captaincy of Orange Free State. His upbringing and education had groomed him for leadership.

His family were of solid, middle-class Afrikaner stock, deeply religious and sporty: Hansie's father, Ewie, had been an off-spinning all-rounder for Free State in the s.

The importance of discipline, dedication and hard work had been inculcated in Hansie at an early age, honed at Grey College in his native Bloemfontein, and was made manifest in , his second year in charge, when the young Free State team, coached by Eddie Barlow to a level of physical and mental fitness rare even for South African cricket, finished runners-up in the Castle Bowl formerly the Currie Cup and won the limited-overs Nissan Shield.

The next two seasons brought Castle Cup and one-day doubles, followed by one-day trophies in subsequent years - a total of seven titles in five seasons.

International commitments meant the young captain was not everpresent, but his influence remained inspirational. He had made his debut at 18 in January , joining his brother, Frans, for the Currie Cup games against Transvaal and Northern Transvaal.

Innings of two and 16, then a pair, were an inauspicious start for someone who would notch up a record 15 first-class hundreds for the Free State, as well as six in one-day competitions.

Hansie's maiden first-class hundred followed in January when, captaining South African Universities, he hit against Mike Gatting's English rebels.

Inside the year, South Africa had been readmitted to full membership of the ICC, and the year-old Cronje was one of four non-playing observers - two white, two non-white - taken to India with the first post-isolation side.

Three months later, he was bowling five tidy overs for 17 as South Africa, captained by Kepler Wessels, shocked Australia with a nine-wicket victory at Sydney in the World Cup.

He played in eight of their nine games in that tournament, including the infamous semi-final against England in which South Africa's target was adjusted after rain from 22 off 13 balls to 21 off one.

Then he went to the Caribbean for South Africa's first Test since readmission, and their first ever against West Indies. Cronje scored only five and two, but in 68 Tests would go on to make 3, runs at His first-class figures from games were 12, runs at With his aggressive batting, intelligent medium-pace bowling and brilliant fielding, Cronje was a formidable competitor.

The Indians discovered as much when they visited. South Africa in and he took a career-best five for 32 in the opening one-day international, won it with a six with three balls to spare, and conceded only 3.

That tour also proved he had the mettle for Test cricket. Going in in the second over at Port Elizabeth, he stayed eight and three-quarter hours balls until he was last out for , the first and highest of his six Test centuries.

When Donald took his match haul to 12 wickets, South Africa had their first Test victory of the new era. Cronje's second hundred, , came in Colombo the following September to set up South Africa's biggest Test win - an innings and runs - and Sri Lanka's heaviest defeat.