Gibbs and Williams banned for six months

South African cricketers Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams have both been banned from playing international cricket for the rest of the year for agreeing to underperform in a one-day international in India earlier this year.

South African cricketing authorities also fined the two players but, deciding they had been "corrupted" by Hansie Cronje, their skipper at the time, agreed to allow them to continue playing domestic cricket.

The bans, which have been backdated to June 30, will end on December 31, giving Gibbs the chance to be included in the South African team to the tour the West Indies in March.

Another player, Pieter Strydom, was acquitted on charges of contravening a local cricketing rule forbidding betting on the outcome of matches.

Strydom said he had agreed to place a bet on Cronje's behalf on the outcome of a match between South Africa and England in January, but had not done it.

Michael Kuper, a member of the United Cricket Board of South Africa's disciplinary committee, told a press conference here Gibbs and Williams had been found guilty of "conspiracy", not match-fixing as neither had gone through with the plan to underperform.

He said Gibbs, 26, was fined 60,000 rand ($A14,873) and 33-year-old Williams 10,000 rand ($US1,400 ($A2,450).

Gibbs was given a heavier fine because he continually denied any involvement in the Cronje scandal, despite being questioned on numerous occasions by the United Cricket Board (UCB).

"Gibbs compounded the damage he had done," Kuper said.

He said the disciplinary committee had considered a life ban for the two players but had decided such a penalty "would have gone beyond what is fair and proper."

Cronje, the South African skipper at the centre of the scandal, was fired from the team in April and admitted to a commission of inquiry in often tearful testimony that he had received thousands of dollars from gamblers and bookmakers on five separate occasions between 1996 and 2000.

Gibbs confessed to the commission in June that he had agreed to an offer from Cronje of $US15,000 ($A26,246) to make fewer than 20 runs in a one-day match in Nagpur, India in March, but in fact he slammed up 73.

Kuper said Gibbs never explained why he did not underperform as agreed. "When Gibbs came to bat he had closed his mind to the corruption," Kuper added. "His was a temporary fall from grace," Kuper added.

Williams had accepted a similar offer, Kuper said, but "by the time Williams came on to bowl, Cronje had in any case already abandoned the plan".

Williams bowled just 11 balls before pulling up injured, but by then had already taken a wicket.

As part of the deal, he was to have conceded at least 50 runs from his 10 overs and take no wickets.

"The conspiracy was stillborn," Kuper said.

He said that International Cricket Council rules on match-fixing, which demand a life ban for anyone involved in match-fixing, only came into effect on April 20, and therefore were not binding on the disciplinary committee.

"Both players were heavily under the influence of Cronje, their captain," Kuper said.

A further mitigating circumstance is that both players had lost money through the withdrawal of match fees, monthly salaries and sponsorships.

Gibbs in a statement apologised for his actions and said he had now "come to appreciate fully my stupidity".