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| June 5, 2002 | Wednesday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 23,1423 |
UCB officials not welcome at Cronje funeral
JOHANNESBURG, June 4: The funeral of former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje will be broadcast live on Wednesday from his hometown of Bloemfontein amid confusion over who will be welcome.
In a radio interview with the South African Broadcasting Corporation Tuesday, Cronje’s father Ewie confirmed that the family had sent two letters to the executive of the United Cricket Board (UCB), the first saying their presence would not be welcome, the second that anyone could attend.
He said: “The UCB executive had recently said that it did not associate with Hansie Cronje...In the light of that, and also in the light of statements that were made now after his death, we said that it’s better that UCB executive are not welcome to attend the funeral.”
However he added that after the family had consulted Cronje’s widow Bertha she said her late husband would have wanted anyone to attend.
Cronje, 32, died Saturday in a cargo plane that slammed into a mountain in the Western Cape province.
The devout Christian, stunned the cricket world two years ago when admitting he had accepted around $130,000 from bookmakers to influence the course of matches. He was subsequently banned for life by the UCB.
The satellite SuperSport TV channel will broadcast the funeral live. The service will take place at his old school, Grey College.
Bronwyn Wilkinson, a spokeswoman for the UCB, said that several UCB members planned to attend but she could not say if anyone from the executive would be there.
She added that several players from the national team would pay their respects to their former captain at the service.
Current team captain Shaun Pollock, playing for English county side Warwickshire, told Reuters he would fly out of Britain on Tuesday night to be at the funeral. “I’ll be there,” he said by telephone.
Former UCB head and current executive director of the 2003 Cricket World Cup, Dr Ali Bacher, also said he would attend.
“I have spoken to the family and I will be at the funeral,” he told Reuters.
The elder Cronje also questioned why the family was suddenly getting support from previously hostile quarters.
“For two years and two months we didn’t have the support of the people. Why now?” he asked.
Cronje’s reputation has been posthumously rehabilitated in the local press, most of which vilified him at the height of the match-fixing scandal. —Reuters
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