'Nothing much' in report on Cronje scandal

South African Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour on Thursday handed an eagerly-awaited report on the Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandal to cricketing authorities but downplayed the 66-page document, saying it held no surprises.

"There is not much in it really, no recommendations, nothing much," Balfour said after handing the King Commission's interim report to South African cricket boss Ali Bacher and International Cricket Council chief executive David Richards.

Richards told reporters he felt "very hurt and upset about all these allegations" about South African cricket.

"It is very important to now go through the process and clean the game up."

Richards said a team of four or five investigators based in London will help the King Commission to root out corruption in the game by passing on all the relevant information they had.

"I must congratulate the South African cricket board and the government on the action they have taken. Our investigators will co-operate with them to clean up the game," he said.

Balfour ventured that the report, which will be made public on Friday, had not changed his opinion that South African "cricket is in a very healthy state, it is not corrupt at all."

"I am still of the opinion that there are only one or two people involved in this type of thing and we can easily clean up the game."

He added that the document was: "not a comprehensive report, it's not final. The King Commission is sitting again on October 2."

The report does not contain any recommendations on disciplinary action against Cronje or teammates Herschelle Gibbs, Pieter Strydom and Henry Williams nor does it pronounce on whether Cronje told the whole truth and will therefore be exempted from criminal prosecution.

The King Commission, appointed to probe the scandal that saw Cronje sacked as captain in April, held public hearings in June, but has asked for its mandate to be extended.

The next round of hearings are expected to last about two weeks, and Balfour said, commission head Judge Edwin King is expected to release his final report in November.

"We are pressing hard for the final report to be completed in November. We will assist them in any way possible to make sure it happens," he said.

The commission's first hearings drew gasps throughout South Africa and the cricket world as Cronje admitted to the commission that he had received thousands of dollars from gamblers and bookmakers on five separate occasions between 1996 and 2000.

The scandal soon drew in other players as Gibbs and Williams told the commission that Cronje had offered them money to underperform in matches against India this year, while Strydom made an attempt to place a bet on behalf of Cronje during a Test match.

The United Cricket Board of South Africa will announce Monday what disciplinary steps it will take against the three men. Cronje is due to give his first television interview since the scandal broke to a South African pay channel on Thursday evening, on the eve of the release of the report, to Balfour's dismay.

The minister has previously criticized Cronje for making money out the scandal long before the investigation was complete and on Thursday added: "I'll watch it with interest but I would have thought he would not do it ... I expected some restraint."

Related report: King report to be made public on Friday

Mail Cricket Editor