Pretoria (Reuters)
Pretoria high-court judge Frank Kirk-Cohen declared in his judgment papers on Wednesday that Hansie Cronje showed a lack of appreciation of what he did.

Cronje was seeking to have a life ban from the game, imposed upon him by the United Cricket Board (UCB) for his involvement in match-fixing, overturned in court.

But on Wednesday morning, Kirk-Cohen dismissed Cronje's application and ordered him to pay half of the UCB costs.

"Suffice to say that the applicant (Cronje) cast aside the honour of leading his national cricket team for the shadowy pleasures of bookmakers' money," said Kirk-Cohen.

In his judgment papers, Kirk-Cohen pointed out that Percy Sonn, the president of the UCB, had said Cronje was, "guilty of corruption of the worst kind, wholly inimical with the whole ethos of cricket".

"His (Cronje's) answer that this was 'unreasonable hyperbole' is, to say the least, revealing and tends to demonstrate a lack of appreciation of what he did," said Kirk-Cohen.

In his papers, Kirk-Cohen upheld the UCB's right of non-association, which was a key argument in their decision to ban Cronje from any involvement with the UCB and its affiliates.

"Counsel for the respondent (UCB), in strong language, referred to the applicant (Cronje) as a 'cheat, a man who had defrauded the respondent and defrauded everybody else who gave time and money to the game of cricket'.

"Viewed objectively, the respondent had the right to adopt a resolution of non-association."

Kirk-Cohen was equally forthright in his assessment of Cronje's bribing of Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams to underperform in their one-day international against India at Nagpur.

"The applicant (Cronje) had gone as far as he could to convert an international cricket match into what may euphemistically be termed a charade.

"It is no answer for the applicant to say, as he did, that, in the event, Mr Gibbs ignored the money and played a very good innings.

"That occurred because Mr Gibbs could not resist the temptation of playing well.

"Viewed objectively, the applicant led his team on to the field having done all in his power falsely to misrepresent to his employers, the other team members, spectators at the match and on television throughout the world, the sponsors of the television broadcast and cricketers in other countries that the match was a bona fide one in all respects."

The judgment does allow Cronje a very restricted role in the game.

According to the ruling, Cronje is still free to coach in schools not affiliated to the UCB. Where schools are affiliates of the UCB, Cronje must have the authority of the respective governing bodies to coach there.

Cronje can work as a journalist and may enter any cricket ground, but is banned from the media centre and its facilities, and from interviewing players at the ground.

Cronje may also not seek employment with any of the UCB's official sponsors.

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