Cronje lawyer in funeral squabble

The United Cricket Board has refuted a demand made by Hansie Cronje's lawyer Leslie Sackstein that no South African cricket officials attend the funeral of the former South African captain Hansie Cronje in Bloemfontein on Wednesday.

According to United Cricket Board spokesperson Bronwyn Wilkinson, Sackstein made the demand in a fax to UCB chief executive Gerald Majola on Monday. In the fax, Sackstein, who claimed to be acting for Cronje's widow Bertha and the Cronje family, asked Majola to see to it that no UCB executive member nor World Cup executive director Ali Bacher attends the funeral.

Sackstein represented Cronje during his appearance before the King Commission of Inquiry into Match-Fixing and his subsequent appeal against his life ban in the Pretoria High Court.

However, Wilkinson said that the UCB had been assured by a representative of the Cronje family that anyone was free to attend the funeral. She said that several UCB members intended to pay their respects to Cronje and that a number of Cronje's former South African team-mates, including captain Shaun Pollock who is to fly to South Africa from England, were expected to attend the funeral.

Cronje died in a plane crash on Saturday.