Christchurch - Former New Zealand cricket captain Ken Rutherford believes Hansie Cronje may have taken more match-fixing secrets to his grave.
Rutherford, who lived and played cricket in South Africa for several years, understood that from what was revealed at the King Commission in 2000, only the surface had been touched.
Rutherford was speaking today as the cricketing community worldwide learned of the death of the disgraced former South African skipper in a plane crash.
"I see the judge was not satisfied with all his answers at the tribunal but that's all only conjecture now," Rutherford said.
Rutherford was leading the Black Caps when Cronje was elevated to the Proteas captaincy in late 1994.
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"He was a very good cricketer and a fine all-rounder. It's just a bit of a shame his ability as a player will forever be tainted by the match-fixing scandal, I guess."
Rutherford said that whenever he encountered Cronje in captaincy exchanges he was a no-nonsense competitor on the field but quite personable off it.
Rutherford, who returned to New Zealand from South Africa last year, said Cronje's leadership qualities had helped unite the team and country in the post-apartheid era when cricket came out of sporting isolation.
However, Rutherford said people who knew him well in the Gauteng (Transvaal) region where Rutherford played, said he was very money orientated.
"Clearly money meant a lot to him and he was apparently involved with money and deals, stocks and shares and the like."
Rutherford believes Cronje may have initially naively started supplying information to bookmakers about team composition and weather and pitch conditions before things became even more serious and he started trying to bribe team-mates to under-perform.
"From what I understand I don't know that he knew much initially about how bookies work," said Rutherford, who is employed by the New Zealand TAB and has always been a keen punter.
"But I think he would be the first to acknowledge that he blew it.
"I know he was hoping that over time the mood would become more conciliatory toward him and he could look to getting back to the game in some form. I think he wanted to put something back."
Rutherford recalled that the Dutch Reform Church gave Cronje unwavering support despite his misdemeanours and he was gaining backing for re-admission to the sport from which he was banned.
Rutherford felt great sympathy for Cronje's father and brother who "suffered tremendously" as Hansie went to court and would suffer even more now.
"His father was a decent bloke who I met a few times and while the brother did missionary work in other parts of Africa. They were good people."
Rutherford said he knew players in the Proteas team like Shaun Pollock, who replaced Cronje as captain, still sought his advice on cricketing matters because of his captaincy skills. - Sapa
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