Cronje's widow remarries

A sad chapter in the life of Bertha Cronje, known to the cricket world as the wife of Hansie Cronje, came to an end when she remarried in Durban on Saturday. She wed Jacques du Plessis, an auditor from George, in a private ceremony attended by Hansie Cronje's parents, Ewie and San-Marie, his sister, Hester, and his brother, Frans.

The couple, who are both 31, met through shared business interests last May, and will honeymoon abroad before returning to live in George, which had been the Cronje's home after Hansie was banned from the game.

In April, when the wedding plans were announced, Bertha told Rapport, a Johannesburg based newspaper, that she shared the same "spiritual values" as du Plessis. "I met him slightly less than a year ago for the first time," she said. "Since then our friendship has blossomed into something beautiful and precious."

Bertha Cronje had stood by her former husband when his involvement in matchfixing was exposed, and he told the King Commission his wife would "have the other testicle" if more mounds of illicit cash were discovered in his vicinity. She emerged from the scandal as a strong woman who didn't deserve the trouble her husband had caused her. Hansie Cronje died in a plane crash at Cradock Peak, near George, on June 1, 2002.