While Hansie Cronje's lawyer has hailed the final report of the King Commission of Inquiry into cricket match-fixing as some kind of vindication, the fate of the disgraced former South African captain still remains unclear.

Justice Edwin King's final report was made public on Friday (after being leaked to select sections of the South African media Thursday, one of whom, e-tv, promptly broke a strict embargo).

With his commission coming to an untidy, and in many ways incomplete, conclusion earlier this year, the chief interest in the final report lay in whether he would recommend criminal prosecution against Cronje for breaking the terms of his indemnity agreement.

Cronje was offered the indemnity provided he made full disclosure to the King commission; in other words, he would not face prosecution if he satisfied Judge King that he had told the whole truth.

Judge King, however, makes no finding either way. Referring to the fact that no further hearings were held after last June when Cronje spent nearly 10 hours giving evidence, King says: "The Commission was required to express to the National Director (of public prosecutions) an opinion as to Cronjé's credibility.

"Due to subsequent developments the Commissioner is not in a position to express such opinion and has advised the National Director accordingly; the National Director is in agreement with the Commissioner's decision."

Leslie Sackstein, Cronje's lawyer, has been quoted by Reuters as saying: "No finding adverse to Hansie's credibility has been made, so his indemnity must be intact."

Sipho Ngwenya, a spokesman for Bulelani Ngcuka, the national director, however, has also been quoted as saying: ""The deal was that Cronje could have indemnity if the commission was satisfied with the credibility of his testimony.

"Since Judge King said he was unable to express an opinion on his credibility because Cronje's lawyers challenged the legality of the commission and brought it to a premature end, he simply doesn't have indemnity.

"The office of the public prosecutor will study the contents of the report to see whether criminal charges will be filed against Cronje."

The primary reason for Judge King winding down his commission was a threatened challenge to the constitutionality of the inquiry. Instead of facing the challenge in court, Judge King chose instead to close his commission down.

The commission also failed to obtain the tapes of telephone conversations between Cronje and various bookmakers made by Indian police last year. These tapes formed the springboard for the entire scandal.

Judge King, nevertheless, says in his report that his commission achieved its primary aim "of uncovering the wrongful conduct of certain individuals, thereby alerting and activating the governors of the game, which has resulted in steps being taken and measures being adopted (or to be introduced), which will hopefully eradicate dishonesty."

He refers to the appointment of the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption commissioner, Sir Paul Condon, as one of the consequences of his commission, but also says that "a cautionary note needs to be struck – vast sums of money have changed hands in the course of betting on cricket matches; the industry is said to be controlled by a sort of mafia. One cannot readily assume that this will all disappear overnight. There is too much at stake and there are too many unscrupulous people involved."

A number of measures, many of them dealing with the education of players, have already been put into place by the United Cricket Board, but the uncertainty over Cronje remains.

As a direct result of the King commission, Cronje was banned from cricket for life. He still intends to challenge this ban in court (always assuming, of course, that he is not busy fighting criminal prosecution). One way or another, it would seem, the Hansie Cronje saga is still to have its day in court.

© CricInfo