Former South African cricket coach Bob Woolmer to support sacked captain Hansie

Former South African cricket coach Bob Woolmer to support sacked captain Hansie
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

JOHANNESBURG, JUNE 6: Former South African cricket coach Bob Woolmer has come out in support of sacked captain Hansie Cronje, saying he should be allowed to play international cricket again, reports said on Tuesday.

"Hansie should be brought back into the fold as quickly as possible. He has admitted that he has done something wrong and that should be taken into account," The Pretoria News quoted Woolmer as telling reporters in Cape Town on Monday.

Woolmer said he believed Cronje, who was fired on April 11 for taking money from an Indian bookmaker for information and forecasts on matches, should not be treated more harshly than Australian cricketers who had done the same. "Mark Waugh and Shane Warne were convicted of the same offence by the Australian Cricket Board and given a monetary fine," he said. "If Hansie has done the same as them why should we be any different?" Woolmer, who coached the Proteas from 1994 to 1999 and is now with English county Warwickshire, and is due to testify before the King Commission which is probing the Cronje scandal said.

Woolmer has indicated that he will testify about an offer to the South African team to "throw" a match in Mumbai, India, in December 1996. He said the team turned it down and he was sure Cronje would never have thrown a match. "Hansie was up and down in his moodswings, but he is a wonderful person and would never throw a match," Woolmer said. "From 1994 to 1999 he stepped onto the field with only one goal and that was to win."

The comments mark a departure for Woolmer who, when the scandal broke, was one of the first to declare Cronje's career over. He Monday blamed Cronje's behaviour on the former captain having enjoyed too much power, and a perverse sense of humour. "My view is that he fooled around with the bookies. when I say that I mean that he would tease them. I just reckon that he dabbled too much and got caught. I would perceive that he got too much power and felt invulnerable," he told The Star newspaper.

Cronje, who was international cricket's longest-serving skipper and the most successful one in South Africa's history, will be the key witness in the hearings to be conducted by retired judge Edwin King. The King Commission is mandated to investigate the period between November 1 last year and April 17, and the 1996 tour of India and will hear testimony from some 43 witnesses.