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June 15, 2000… Thursday. Former South African captain Hansie Cronje issued a statement admitting his links with match fixers.
Cronje said-
During the Kanpur Test match in 1996, Azhar introduced him to a fixer named Mukesh Gupta.
Cronje also took the name of Ajay Jadeja. This news created a sensation in Indian cricket. After this BCCI banned Azhar-Jadeja.
This is the story which is considered to be the dark chapter of the cricket world. However, later the court lifted the ban on Azhar and Jadeja.
This photo of Hansie Cronje is of June 15, 2000. When he took the oath before testifying at the King Commission.
3 days before the Kolkata Test, we are going to tell the 5 biggest stories of India-South Africa cricket. These include controversy, sledging, celebration, statements and records.
5 stories of India-South Africa cricket
first story
The first tour of Africa changed the face of Indian cricket. First of all, let’s talk about the most interesting story, which made BCCI, which was facing financial crisis, the richest cricket board in the world.
It is the year 1991, the ban imposed on South Africa due to apartheid was lifted. After that the African team was going to come on Indian tour.
One day Cricket South Africa’s administrator Ali Bakar called BCCI and asked-
What will you guys charge for TV rights?
Indian Board officials had no answer to this question. He did not know that money could be earned from the rights of showing the match on TV. Because, earlier the Indian Board used to pay Rs 5 lakh for every match to Doordarshan to show its matches.
This image is generated by AI.
Amrit Mathur, who was the manager of the Indian team in that series, has mentioned this incident in his book Pitchside. they write…
President Madhavrao Scindia entrusted me with two responsibilities. First, to find out whether we have the rights and second, to decide the price of the 3-match series. Seeing Mathur’s hesitation on the phone, Bakar offered him $120,000.
South African captain Clive Rice, who was on Indian tour for the first time, met Mother Teresa.
second story
Kepler Vegels bats Kapil Dev After a 2-1 win at home and earning millions, the Indian team toured South Africa the very next year. The hosts won the 4-Test series 1-0. The Indian team was trailing 0-1 in the ODI series.
The second match was being played at St. George Park Stadium in Port Elizabeth. In the match played on 9 December 1992, after winning the toss and electing to bat, the Indian team was all out for 147 runs. In the 9th over of Africa’s innings, Kapil Dev ran out (mankading) non-striker Peter Kirsten when he came out of the crease.
Former Indian captain Kapil Dev running out Peter Kirsten.
Kapil saw Kirsten taking a wrong start twice and warned him. But, when he did not agree, he was run out. Angry Kirsten returned back to the dressing room. Angered by this, captain Kepler Vegels hit the bat on Kapil Dev’s thigh while taking a run. This incident was not recorded on camera.
This image is generated by AI.
After the match, Kapil Dev told the team about this incident. Kapil had said-
Kepler has hit me intentionally and it was not an unintentional incident.
After this, Indian team manager Amrit Mathur lodged a complaint about this incident with ICC match referee Clive Lloyd. However, Lloyd did not take any action against Kepler in the absence of evidence.
third story
Tendulkar accused of ball tampering, also banned Year 2001…The second Test between India and South Africa was being played on the grounds of Port Elizabeth. On 18 November, on the third day of the match, captain Sourav Ganguly handed the ball to Sachin Tendulkar. How is Sachin’s ball swinging so much on the same pitch where other bowlers were failing to swing the ball?
To find out this, the local TV producer asked the cameraman to focus on Sachin’s fingers. 2 photos of Sachin were shown on TV. In which Tendulkar was cleaning the seam of the ball with the thumb and finger of his left hand. On the basis of these photos, match referee Mike Dennis banned Tendulkar for one match.
Because of these 2 photos, Sachin Tendulkar was accused of ball tampering.
Sachin wrote his autobiography ‘Playing It My Way’ Told through that they were only cleaning grass and soil from the seam of the ball. Sachin had written-
It was a very difficult time for me, when match referee Mike Dennis accused me of ball tampering. I was absolutely astonished because I had played cricket honestly all my life and had never done anything like this.
fourth story
Sreesanth’s dance celebration after hitting a six In 2006-07, the Indian team was again on South Africa tour. The first Test was being played at the Wanderers ground in Johannesburg. After bowling out South Africa for 84 runs in the first innings, the Indian team was batting in the second innings. S Sreesanth was at the crease with Vikram Singh as the last wicket.
Andre Nel argued with him. Angered by this, Sreesanth hit a six over the bowler’s head on the third ball of Nel, who was bowling the 64th over of the innings. He ran on the crease, waved the bat and started dancing. The video of this dance of Sreesanth went viral. After the match, Sreesanth told that Nel was calling him a scared rabbit. Later Nel admitted that he had called Sreesanth a person without a liver.
Sreesanth’s celebration after hitting a six on the nail ball.
After many years Nell said-
I had never seen him celebrating like this. However, when you get hit by a six after an argument, you have no option but to walk away with your tail tucked in.
Sreesanth was the player of the match in that match. He took 5 wickets in the first innings and 3 wickets in the second innings. India won that match by 123 runs.
fifth story
Test ended in 642 balls Year 2024…The shortest Test in cricket history was played at the Newlands ground in Cape Town. In this match, India defeated South Africa in just one and a half days. Only 642 balls were bowled in this match, which is a world record for the least number of balls to end a Test match.
On 3 January, South Africa won the toss and chose to bat. South Africa team was all out for just 55 runs in the first innings. In reply, the Indian team lost all the wickets for 153 runs. In this way India got a lead of 121 runs.
Indian bowlers all out South Africa’s second innings for 176 runs. In such a situation, India got the target of only 79 runs, which was achieved by the Indian batsmen by losing 3 wickets. Mohammad Siraj was the player of the match. He took 7 wickets in the match.
Mohammad Siraj gave his career best performance in the first innings of this test.
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