Cronje inquiry likely to be made public

Plans to have the Hansie Cronje match-fixing inquiry made public are being floated on the eve of the appointment of the judge to head the commission.

Sources say the International Cricket Council have come out in support of what is understood to be the United Cricket Board's stand on the issue after a traumatic week which saw Cronje fired by the board a week ago before the long-awaited Challenge Series against Australia. Which, if true, is the sort of good news South Africa needs right now as a transparent approach is seen as the best way to clean up what has become a messy national issue.

Although it is up to the judge to decide what form the inquiry should take, there is the view that instead of being an in-house affair the findings, as well as some of the submissions, are to be made public.

Minister of Sport Ngconde Balfour has already made it known that he wants the inquiry finished by the end of May, about a month before the squad flies out to Sri Lanka in what is the first tour of the post-Cronje era.

As it is there are confirmed reports by the London Sunday Times specialist cricket writer Simon Wilde who has been made aware of Cronje's last 24 hours before his 3am call to Dr Ali Bacher, managing director of the UCB, and Percy Sonn, the UCB's acting president, confessing he had not been honest with them.

It appears that the South Africa deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Azziz Pahad, had met with Cronje after his meeting with the India High Commissioner and was informed of "irrefutable evidence" and that in his best interests it would be "advisable to come clean". The meeting between Pahad and the Indian High Commissioner a week ago in Pretoria is seen as the key meeting during the diplomatic flurry which followed last Sunday's meeting in which the UCB backed their man to the hilt.

Cronje it seems then went away after his discussions with Pahad and had a long think about his next move. It came with the pre-dawn call to Dr Bacher which ended in his dismissal and the end of his career.