DURBAN (Reuters)
Former South African captain Hansie Cronje has been appointed as a financial manager by a company listed on the Johannesburg stock exchange, newspapers have reported.

Independent Group papers reported that Bell Equipment had hired 32-year-old Cronje, who was banned from cricket for life in 2000 by United Cricket Board of South Africa for his involvement in match fixing.

Cronje, who is in his second year of study for a masters degree in business leadership, has joined the company's finance division and will help structure financial and insurance deals for Bell's clients.

"Cronje has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty in a court of law, and that hasn't happened yet," Bell chief executive Gary Bell was quoted as saying.

Cronje admitted in sworn testimony to the King commission into cricket corruption that he had accepted approximately US$130,000 from bookmakers to influence the course of matches. He failed in a bid last year to have his life ban overturned. The Pretoria High Court ruled that the ban should stand, but said he could take part in certain coaching and media activities.

"Mr Cronje has no criminal record against him, as many people in our country unfortunately have," Bell chairman Howard Buttery told Reuters on Thursday.

Buttery said there was "absolutely no chance whatsoever" of Cronje's appointment damaging the reputation of the company, which has an alliance with Hitachi in cricket-crazy Asia. He added he was confident in Cronje's ability to make a success of his new career.

"He would have got the job if his name wasn't Hansie Cronje," Buttery said. "He has the academic skills and the business acumen to make it. He's a very nice kid."

Bell's share price closed unchanged in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

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