JOHANNESBURG, Nov 3 (PTI): Herschelle Gibbs has claimed in his controversial autobiography, To the Point that former South Africa captain Hansie Cronje had made an offer to the team to fix a match in India in 1996. However, an one-time ace opener admitted that Cronje remained a man he would always admire.
In a chapter titled �The controversies�, Gibbs recalled the night Cronje changed the face of the game forever.
�It was 6.30 a.M. And knocking on my door was the Proteas team captain Hansie Cronje. We were touring India in 2000, and in Nagpur about to play our final ODI match against India. My roommate Henry Williams was in the shower when Hansie sat down on the bed. He got straight to the point. �I�ve got a mate here in India,� he said, �and you can make some good money if you do what he�s asking. He�s offering US$15,000 if you go out for less than 20 in today�s game.�� But it was not the first time that Cronje had approached his side about match-fixing, according to Gibbs.
�This had happened before,� Gibbs wrote in his book which was released here on Monday.
�During a tour to India in 1996, we were due to play a benefit game for one of the (unnamed) Indian players � it would be the last game of the tour. The night before the game, Hansie got the whole team together and dropped a real bombshell. �I know a guy�, he said, �who is going to give us US$250,000 if we lose this game.�� Gibbs said the offer was tempting because the South Africans were probably going to lose the game anyway due to the team being below strength with six members of the side being sick.
