NEWS
OTHER SPORTS
DIARY
PEOPLE
MATCH REPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

SA ready to permit Indian cops to quiz Cronje

South Africa will allow Indian police detectives to question disgraced South African skipper Hansie Cronje for his alleged role in match-fixing, Pretoria's chief diplomat in Delhi was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

The Asian Age newspaper quoted the South African High Commissioner to India, Maite Nkoana Mashabane, as saying that Pretoria would give its green signal provided India's Central Bureau of Investigations made such a request.

The request has to be "need-based" and "issue-based", the Asian Age quoted Mashabane as saying in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta.

She also hinted that a South African commission, headed by ex-judge Edwin King, probing the charges against South African cricketers could come to India next month to persue its own probe, the daily said.

So far neither the CBI nor India's cricket board has sought permission to send detectives to South Africa to question Cronje and his teammates, Herschelle Gibbs, Nicky Boje and Pieter Strydom.

Delhi Police Commissioner Ajai Raj Sharma said at the weekend that a police team could be dispatched to South Africa if required.

The police here on April 7 charged the four visiting cricketers with taking money from bookies during the five one-day internationals South Africa played in India between March 9 and 19. India won the series 3-2.

Cronje, who had initially denied the allegations, was sacked after he admitted having been "dishonest" with the South African cricket board over his activities in India.

Mashabane told the Asian Age that the allegations would not hit bilateral ties.

"Cricket diplomacy" would continue irrespecive of the findings of the respective fact-finding teams, she said.

"A few wrong-doers on either side will not spoil the bilateral understanding between our countries."

"These minor hiccups cannot de-stabilise our relationship since it is not only friendship that binds us, but something more, blood ties between people of both the countries," Mashabane said.

Delhi police have said they have tapes of conversations between the disgraced South African skipper and a London-based Indian bookmaker, Sanjiv Chawla, as evidence. But they have rejected demands from Pretoria for copies.