Cronje book in huge demand

Although South African cricket has largely left the troubles of the Hansie Cronje era behind, there is still a fascination surrounding the whole matchfixing controversy if the sales of a new book are any indication. "The Hansie Cronje story: an authorised biography," by Garth King is racing off bookshelves around the country.

It was published on July 22 and rushed to the top of the non-fiction bestseller list in South Africa. In Bloemfontein, Cronje's hometown, the book reportedly outsold Harry Potter during the first week.

By the end of the first month it had sold 12,000 copies - unusual for a South African sports book - and at the end of this week 17,000 had left the shelves, prompting an extra print run of 8000.

Esme Britz of the Cape Town-based publishers, Global Creative Studios, told Reuters: "When I arrived at my desk today I had another order for 300 copies waiting. Every day we get enquiries from the UK asking where they can buy the book, but it's not available overseas yet. We're trying to get someone over there to warehouse copies of the book for us before we sell it there."

However, despite the interest from the public, the South African cricket hierarchy are not racing to pick up their copies. Ali Bacher, who was the managing director of the United Cricket Board (UCB) when the Cronje story broke in 2000, said: "I have a copy, but I haven't read it, I will one day."

Percy Sonn, who was UCB president at the time, told Reuters he had no interest in reading the book. Most of Cronje's former team mates have said they haven't read the book, except for Jonty Rhodes, who is a long-time supporter of Cronje's.

"After the first day of the King commission (the South African investigation into Cronje's conduct) I couldn't watch the rest," Rhodes told Reuters. "So, while I was familiar with the ground covered in the rest of the book, I found that section interesting. I thought the book gave Hansie's life a broad background, and the key for Frans [Cronje's brother] and the rest of the family are the lessons of Hansie's life."