Cronje: Crook or tragic hero?
Is Hansie Cronje a villain or a hero
Pritish Nandy
17-Jul-2000
Is Hansie Cronje a villain or a hero? Is he a shameless crook or a great
cricketer with a fatal flaw? Has he destroyed the game by his greed or
cleansed it by confessing to the truth? Maybe it is time to think this one
through.
Wherever I go I hear the same tedious arguments against Cronje. How he has
finished off what was once a gentleman's game. How he must be brought back
to India and tried. How he must face exemplary punishment so that all players
in future think twice before getting embroiled with bookies trying to fix the
game. But before we pass judgement on Cronje, let us look at the facts
dispassionately.
One: Hansie Cronje did succumb to greed and he initially lied to cover it
up. His motives for the cover-up could be any of four. One: He thought he could
still get away with it. Two: He was genuinely ashamed of himself for having
been so stupid. Three: He was trying to save his team mates and other
players involved in match fixing in the belief that one ruined career is more than enough to teach everyone a lesson. Four: He was scared of exposing the
powerful and wicked people behind the betting syndicates. Of these, only the
first reason is villainous. We can easily forgive him for the rest.
The way he implicated Mohammad Azharuddin and then, the very next day, let him off the hook speaks volumes for the fear and tentativeness that drives the man. It is not the sign of a crook. It is the sign of an essentially decent man who knows that he is in trouble but is still trying to save everyone else.
Two: While he did initially lie, Cronje was uncomfortable with falsehood and
quickly confessed to the crime. As any policeman will tell you, this is not
the sign of a hardened criminal. Only a novice admits his crime almost
immediately after denying it. No third degree was applied to him, as so
often happens here to assist confessions. He confessed on his own after grappling with his guilt for a few hours. He called up his parish priest and then went out and sang. He sang like a canary only to realise after a few hours that he was not only destroying his own career but also hurting others.
That is when he became more circumspect and what the media sees as his
waffling and perfidy is actually the tortuous soul searching of a decent man
trying to cope with his own guilt and at the same time ensure that no one
else gets hurt for his sake. He not only tried to bail out his own team mates but also threw Azhar a lifeline by saying that it was possible that Azhar had no
clue as to what MK offered him.
Three: Cronje's confessions will go a long way towards finding out the truth
behind all these match fixing allegations. He is the first cricketer to
admit to the crime. The rest are all hiding behind a thick wall of sullen silence, praying that the crisis will go away. That public memory, proverbially
short, will forget this whole sordid episode in a few months and they can then
return to living their lives as they have always done. In the glare of adulation
and easy cash.
They are not sorry about what they did and, unlike Cronje, they are not even
ready to confess. They are, as the Chinese proverb says, bending their heads
and letting the storm blow by. In the belief that nothing stays in the
headlines forever. Not even treachery to the nations they have represented
on the playing fields of the world.
At least Hansie Cronje confessed to his crime and is ready to take the rap
for it. This is not only the sign of a decent man. It is the sign of a good
cricketer and a great team leader which Cronje undoubtedly was. That is why
I hope history eventually remembers him not just as a fine batsman who was
discredited for his indiscretions but also as a brave person who, in a
moment of dark personal crisis, chose not to stick to lies and half truths but came out openly and cleansed the game. In the process, he lost virtually
everything that he had built up over a career spanning two of the most competitive decades of the game but he nevertheless had the courage of his convictions.
He did not pass the buck. He tried not to implicate others. He walked into the
dark hole of pain and anguish all by himself.
It was not an easy thing to do. To shoulder the entire burden of guilt and
responsibility so that others may go free. But that is exactly what you
expect a great captain to do and Hansie Cronje, whatever his faults may be, is
undoubtedly one of the greatest captains cricket has ever seen. This is what
he has proved even in his disgrace. May be it is now time to stop knocking
him and start cleansing the game of its actual manipulators, most of whom
unfortunately live in this subcontinent and are still walking about with
their heads held high.