England return to scene of crime

A young and outclassed England side, with Nasser Hussain on his first tour as captain, had been ruthlessly swept aside in the series and were 2-0 down.

South Africa were unbeaten in 14 Tests and, after four days of rain at Centurion, the match was petering out in to a draw and that run seemed certain to be extended.

But Cronje was determined to break all Test match convention. He forfeited an innings, set England a target and in a thrilling last-over finish, the visitors won, inspired by half centuries from Vaughan and Alec Stewart.

Cronje was hailed a hero. "At the time it was seen as a fantastic gesture from Hansie," Stewart recalled. "The game was heading for the dullest of dull draws and for the players and spectators it meant the chance of an exciting run chase. It was the sort of thing that used to go on regularly in three-day county cricket. But two forfeited innings and a run chase had never happened before in a Test.

"When we won we thought what a great win for England and what a great thing Hansie had done for cricket. At the time there was nothing sinister about it."

But four months later Cronje was exposed as the match-fixing scandal was unearthed.

It turned out Cronje had been rewarded for ensuring there was a result from the match, which explained why he was so keen for Hussain to make a game of it.

"It had rained for four days but the fifth was a lot better," wrote Hussain in his autobiography, Playing With Fire. "Alec Stewart had crossed Hansie Cronje on the stairs of the pavilion and Hansie asked him if we wanted to play a game.

"The wicket was starting to play really well and the outfield was fast so I thought 'why not chase a score down'."

Hussain described how he negotiated a target with Cronje: "We went into the back room at Centurion and, for the first and only time in my life, I prepared to negotiate a target.

"But it was nothing like I expected, nothing like those old verbal jousts of my youth when I would watch Keith Fletcher, the master, somehow wangle Essex into gaining an easy target to chase with his expert bartering.

Basically, Hansie just agreed with everything I asked for. Phil Tufnell, who wasn't playing in the match, was in the room and he told me then that he found it a bit peculiar. I expected Hansie, at the very least, to ask us to chase 320 once we had seen how well the wicket was playing.

"So I deliberately aimed low at first and said, 'How about us chasing 250?' Hansie just said, 'Fine'. I couldn't believe it. No haggling. No banter. No bartering. No mention of how many overs we would face. It was like that scene from the film Life of Brian when the salesman is all indignant because the guy has paid his first asking price without any argument."

South Africa declared and both sides forfeited an innings before England, now in their second innings, recovered from 102 for four to seal the win. Hussain's memory of the victory has since been tarnished by the ensuing match-fixing scandal.

"I don't like to be sucked into things by other people and I know that one of my Test match wins as England captain is meaningless.

"I don't know which bits of that match were for real. I don't know which runs were freebie runs and nothing annoys me more than that. You should have to earn runs and wins in Test cricket and it is that which sits badly with me," he added.

Stewart agrees. "It was a hollow win even though 21 of the players involved were doing things the right way," he said. "Shaun Pollock, Nantie Hayward and Jacques Kallis were bowling full on and it was proper cricket as far as I was concerned."

Michael Atherton, who opened the batting in that game, was not overjoyed at the win.

He said: "For the first time in my life I felt completely flat at the moment of a Test victory. It wasn't that I suspected match-fixing, but a Test match victory is something that has to be earned.

"We had worked hard on the final afternoon for our victory but, in essence, the match had been gifted to us, and, as a result, I felt it was a hollow victory.

"As the players wandered over to the far side of the ground to share the triumph with the Barmy Army, I stayed in the changing rooms, sharing none of their joy. In the end, it wasn't just about winning."

Cronje played two further Test matches before he was caught on tape by Indian police talking to a bookmaker. In June 2002, his death in a plane crash was the final act in a depressing personal tragedy.