Cricket: Gibbs admits to Cronje bribe offer

HERALD ONLINE STAFF and AGENCIES

South African cricketer Herschelle Gibbs has blown the bribery and match-fixing scandal wide open by admitting that Hansie Cronje offered him US$15,000 (NZ$32,000) to lose his wicket during a match between South Africa and India earlier this year.

Testifying before the South African King commission into alleged match-fixing, Gibbs said Cronje had approached him before the fifth one-day game of the series against India and indicated that if he went out for less than 20 runs in he could make US$15,000.

He said he accepted the offer out of concern for his mother, who was about to be divorced from his father and would have trouble supporting herself.

However, in the heat of the match the opening batsman forgot about the agreement and went on to score 74 runs. During the match Cronje asked Gibbs what had happened to the agreement, and he had replied that he had forgotten about it. As a result Gibbs never received any money.

When Gibbs was later questioned by Dr Ali Bacher, managing director of the United Cricket Board of South Africa, about whether he'd ever been approached with an offer to accept money, Gibbs lied and said that he had not.

Gibbs said he regretted lying to the UCB about the incident, but he had done so in order to protect his captain, and because he had been afraid of the consequences.

Gibbs told the King commission that he understood that other South African players, including Mark Boucher, Jacques Kallis, Henry Williams and Pieter Strydom, had also been asked by Cronje to be part of the scam.

The evidence from Gibbs contradicted an earlier statement presented to the inquiry in which Cronje claimed to have dealt with bookmakers but made no deals with his teammates and had thrown or manipulated no matches.