PRETORIA (Reuters)
Former South Africa captain Hansie Cronje's life ban from cricket should stand because he is a cheat who has been guilty of corruption and fraud, a senior counsel for the United Cricket Board (UCB) has said.

"Mr Cronje is a cheat by his own admission," Wim Trengove told the Pretoria High Court. "He is guilty of corruption and fraud." Cronje has appealed against the life ban by the UCB after he admitted to the King Commission in June last year that he had accepted around $130,000 from illegal bookmakers. He will not attend the hearing which began on Wednesday and is expected to conclude on Friday.

Trengove told presiding judge Justice FC Kirk-Cohen that Cronje had defrauded the UCB "and everybody who contributed time and money to a game in the belief it was honestly played when in fact it had been corrupted by Cronje".

"He sold his own integrity," Trengove said. "He sold out his team and his country. Now Cronje finds it strange and unfair. But those who aspire to uphold the honour of the game want nothing to do with him. What he seeks in the court order is to force the cricket authorities to play with him. But cheats don't belong in cricket and the UCB believes cricket cheats should be punished." Trengove said Cronje still wanted to make money from cricket and wanted to force the UCB to allow him to do so.

Senior counsel Malcolm Wallace, appearing for Cronje, told the court earlier that Cronje had been unfairly dismissed because he was not given a hearing by the UCB. "But he wasn't dismissed," Justice Kirk-Cohen said. "His contract wasn't renewed." Wallace replied: "But that was, in effect, dismissal." He added that the fact that Cronje had not been given a hearing made his dismissal unlawful under labour laws.

Wallace said Cronje did not intend to resume his cricket career. "These proceedings are not directed at enabling Cronje to resume his career as an active cricket player or restore the status he enjoyed before," he said. "These proceedings are to advance Cronje's ability to pick up the pieces and build a new life for him and his family and, if possible, your lordship, to make some recompense to the game. Cricket is and was the area of his best ability where he made his friends and is his future."

Trengove said the UCB had had no disciplinary jurisdiction over Cronje at the time of the resolution to ban him in November last year. He said firstly, the UCB had not renewed Cronje's contract when it had come up for renewal in April last year. Secondly, Cronje had announced to the King Commission that he was severing all his links with the game.

At the beginning of the hearing Justice Kirk-Cohen mentioned Cronje's offer of money to Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams to under-perform in a one-day international last year. "We are not beating about the bush," the judge said. "This is the most serious incident of the lot."

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