London - Disgraced former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje faced damaging new allegations on Friday when a former girlfriend told a British newspaper that he was a love cheat.
Cronje ended an 18-month affair with Debbie Coleman of Derbyshire in central England as they lay in bed after making love, Britain's top-selling Sun tabloid reported.
Coleman, 33, told the newspaper she first suspected Cronje, 30, was two-timing her after finding love letters in his suitcase.
"I was unpacking his case when I found 10 cards from the same girl, professing her undying love. He claimed teammates had done it as a joke," said Coleman, who met Cronje in 1993 at the South African gym where she worked as a keep-fit instructor.
"I suspected he was lying but gave him the benefit of the doubt," she said. "I thought it would be OK until that last time we made love. Afterwards, he just turned to me and said: 'It's over'."
Of the match-fixing allegations now dogging Cronje, she said: "He cheated on me, and now he's cheated on the whole nation."
On Thursday, Cronje denied he had ever manipulated the results of a match after earlier admitting to accepting between $10 000 and $15 000 from a bookmaker for information and forecasting during the triangular series against Zimbabwe and England in January. - Reuters