It is 11 years to the death of former disgraced South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje today.
Cronje was killed in a air crash, years after he became the biggest name in a match fixing scandal that rocked the game to such an extent, that it never fully recovered from the blows it suffered then.
(Inset) Hansie Cronje and two crew members were killed when the plane crashed into the Outeniqua mountains onu00a0June 1, 2002 due to bad weather. Pic/AFP
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Today as the Indian Premier League (IPL) is embroiled in spot fixing scandals and the trust deficit of the cricket fan seems to be increasing, one can safely say that administrators and players have learnt little if nothing post the Cronje scandal.
A decade after SA’s poster boy captain fell from the pedestal, cricket is still not clean. The International Cricket Council (ICC) has set up an anti-corruption unit and there have been some attempts to address the malaise, but these has been a case of too little.
Bookies have gone forth and multiplied, shady agents abound and temptation lurks around the corner, in a game which has got so big in the sub-continent that the money is frankly, obscene.
Obviously, all previous warnings and predictions about cleaning up cricket have gone unheeded and the ghosts are back to haunt the game. Cronje’s soul certainly does not Rest in Peace now. As for cricket, it is those who fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.
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