Today in History: South African cricket captain, Hansie Cronje, died in a plane crash
To this day, the late Hansie Cronje remains the most successful South African cricket captain of all time.
Less than a year after he was banned from cricket for life due to match-fixing, Hansie Cronje was killed in a plane crash when he and two pilots crashed into the Outeniqua Mountains 16 years ago.
Hansie made his debut for South Africa at the 1992 ICC Cricket World Cup in Australia, playing against Australia in Sydney on 26 February 1992.
He played in eight of the team’s nine tournament matches, averaging 34,00 with the bat, while his medium pace was used to bowl 20 overs.
After the World Cup, Hansie became part of the tour to the West Indies, where he featured in the three ODIs, and in the test match at Bridgetown that followed, he made his test debut.
Hansie would stand in as captain for an injured Kepler Wessels in the third and final test against Australia in Adelaide in 1994, becoming South Africa’s second youngest test captain after Murray Bisset in 1898/ 99 (he is now the third youngest, as Graeme Smith became the youngest ever South African captain).
Hansie’s first permanent position as captain came in the 1994/ 95 series against New Zealand.
From there on, until the day he was banned for life, Hansie captained South Africa 138 times in ODIs, winning 99 of them.
He was at the time the player to captain South Africa in the most ODIs (a feat bested by Graeme Smith who captained South Africa in 149 ODIs), while his 99 victories remain the most by a South African captain.
On 7 April 2000, his reputation went to the dogs when it was revealed that there had been a conversation between Hansie and Sanjay Chawla, a representative of an Indian betting syndicate, about match-fixing allegations.
Three other players, Herschelle Gibbs, Nicky Boje, and Pieter Strydom, were also implicated.
After an inquiry by the King Commission, Cronje was banned from any involvement in cricket for life.
He challenged his life ban in September 2001 but on 17 October 2001, his application was dismissed.
This was the largest match-fixing scandal in the sport until the Pakistan cricket spot-fixing scandal in 2010.
On 1 June 2002, Hansie’s scheduled flight home from Johannesburg to George was grounded.
He then hitched a ride as the only passenger aboard a Hawker Siddeley HS 748 turboprop aircraft.
Near George airport, the pilots lost visibility in clouds and were unable to land, partly due to unusable navigational equipment.
While circling, the plane crashed into the Outeniqua Mountains northeast of the airport.
Hansie, aged 32, was killed instantly, along with the pilots.
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