Forbearance is the prime sentiment towards Cronje

When the news of Hansie Cronje's experiments with untruth wafted through to reach the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, it was greeted with a mixture of cynicism and disbelief. Although many preferred to be tightlipped, there were a few intrepid souls who offered to bare their heart out. Cronje did have some sympathy among his peers like Hyderabad coach Arshad Ayub who declared that 'everybody made mistakes and since Cronje was man enough to accept it, the cricket fraternity should be a bit lenient on the guy.'

The maximum punishment that he suggested was a year's ban from international cricket. 'Let him work his way back. Even in his private life they should not dig it in.' He professed to have no idea of what motivates highly paid international players to earn a few extra bucks at the cost of their professional integrity. 'Whether you're paid enough or not, its not called for, he said.' Agreeing that the fallout would be damaging to international cricket since 'the public would start trusting results little less', he said that he did not however have any magic formula 'where I can say that yes, we can do this and close down the whole thing.'

Venkatapathi Raju had toured South Africa in 1992-93 and seemed more surprised initially at the recall of Dave Callaghan whom he had crossed swords with on that tour. He said that 'it was surprising that Cronje's name came up seeing the way he was leading the side and the way he was winning matches after being appointed captain at such a young age.' Raju also said that there has been increasing money pouring into the game after 1996, so it was surprising that players were trying to augment it by illegal earnings. 'Probably they have seen so much money, they are thinking it's more like pocket money.'

He believed that cricketers were now in a situation that they are damned if they do and damned if they don't. 'People think that if you lose you're paid and if you win also you're being paid.' He cautioned that more than the cricketers the people should go against the big businessmen and betting interests. When asked whether it was at all possible to expose these elements, he seemed to have little doubt in the ability of local law enforcement, saying that these days 'the police have so much pride in their jobs, they should be able to do it.' He did not approve of tactics like phone tapping though. 'You might be talking to your family or it may be personal also. Next time nobody will want to talk on the phone.'