Delhi Police Tap a Phone — How the Cronje Scandal Broke, April 2000

Mukesh Gupta had been paying Cronje for information since 1996 (per Cronje's own King Commission testimony). Sanjeev Chawla, London-based, had taken over the relationship. The 1999-2000 tour of India was financially the most active period of the relationship.

Indian businessmen in Delhi had complained of extortion calls. Delhi police placed wiretaps. Conversations between Chawla and a 'foreigner' came up. The voice was Cronje's. Srivastava's son made the identification.

Delhi Crime Branch, led by deputy commissioner Pradeep Srivastava, had been investigating Delhi businessmen complaining of extortion calls from London. They placed wiretaps on suspect numbers in early 2000. Among the recorded conversations were calls between Sanjeev Chawla, an Indian businessman based in London, and a man with a South African accent — discussing match outcomes, batting orders, declared totals and payments. Srivastava took the tapes home one evening. His teenage son, watching post-match interviews on Indian television the previous night, heard the voice from the cassette and identified it as Hansie Cronje. Srivastava listened more carefully and confirmed the match. On April 7, 2000 — five days after Cronje's South Africa side had finished a five-match ODI tour of India 3-2 — the Delhi police filed an FIR against Cronje, Chawla and others under the Indian Penal Code. They released selected transcripts to the press. The South African cricket establishment initially called it a smear campaign. Cronje, Allan Donald, Daryll Cullinan and others publicly denied involvement. Three days later, in the early hours of April 11, Cronje phoned United Cricket Board (UCB) chief Ali Bacher and confessed: he had taken money from bookmakers since 1996, including during the just-completed Indian tour. The South African board sacked him by lunchtime.

“His son had watched a post-match interview with Cronje on Indian television the previous day and recognised his voice from the cassette.”

“I have not been entirely honest. I have given information to a person, who in turn passed it on to a betting syndicate.”

The King Commission of Inquiry was established in South Africa and ran from June 7 onwards. Cronje testified for two days, admitting receiving roughly $130,000 from bookmakers between 1996 and 2000. He was banned for life by the UCB in October 2000. Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams were given six-month bans. Sanjeev Chawla fled to the UK; he was extradited to India only in February 2020, twenty years later.