August 08, 2008	Friday	Sha’aban 5, 1429

DURBAN, Aug 7: A film based on the life of late South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje, who fell from grace in the 2000 match-fixing scandal, is all set for release next month.

Directed by Cronje’s brother Frans, ‘Hansie’ chronicles the former skipper’s life, that met a tragic end when he died in a plane crash in 2002, completed filming on Monday.

The film opens on September 24 in Africa and is also slated to have an international release on later date. The film’s DVD is also ready and features a documentary on Hansie and interviews of some of his former team-mates including current India coach Gary Kirsten, Jonty Rhodes, Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Peter Pollock, Andrew Hudson and England’s newly-appointed captain Kevin Pietersen.

‘Hansie’ was shot in South Africa, England and India and Frans said, the film looks at the cricketer’s “internal journey from stardom to losing everything and then the journey to rebuilding his life.”

Frans described the filming an emotional experience and singled out the sequence on Hansie’s deposition before the King’s Commission, during which he broke down while admitting his role in match fixing, as the most excruciating moment.

“He was very emotional and my dad and I were crying with him. When we filmed this, it was like seeing the real event happen again. The acting in this scene was really magnificent,” Frans said.

“While filming, I just sat there with tears in my eyes. Fortunately, when I looked around me, I realised that everyone else on the sets were crying as well,” he added.

The film took a year to complete and Frans said it was “It was incredibly tough. In a sense, it felt like I went through my own ‘King Commission’ at a stage.”

South African actor Francois Rautenbach will play Hansie in the movie.

Cricket South Africa endorses and supported the movie after gong through its screenplay “to ensure that the story is told with integrity”.

“The International Cricket Council were happy for us to continue, knowing that the CSA endorsed it,” Frans said.

“I think they were happy to see that we did not choose to try and uncover any more match-fixing dirt.

“Rather, we chose to tell the story of Hansie’s internal journey,” he added.—Agencies