South Africans mourn 'inspirational ' Cronje
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Your support makes all the difference.Hundreds of relatives, fans and former team-mates packed a funeral service yesterday for the former South Africa captain Hansie Cronje, who died last Saturday in a plane crash.
"All our hearts are aching," Pastor Dave Hooper told the mourners in Grey College here, Cronje's alma mater. "The world has lost a great cricketing hero."
More than 1,000 people filled the church and a large-screen television and rows of seats were set up outside to accommodate the crowd that matched the number of mourners inside. The congregation included Cronje's family as well as several members of the national cricket team, wearing their team jackets.
Ali Bacher, the former managing director of the United Cricket Board of South Africa, who had strongly criticised Cronje in the wake of his match-fixing admissions, was also there.
Cronje, who at 25 became the youngest captain of the South African team, led the country to possibly their greatest Test victory, a five-run win over Australia in Sydney in 1994. The country's jubilation was to turn to stunned disappointment six years later after Indian police officials announced they had tape recordings of Cronje talking to an Indian bookmaker during the team's tour of the subcontinent.
These match-fixing allegations and the scandal that followed turned the cricket world into disarray and cast Cronje in the role of a disgraced fallen hero. He received a life-time ban from the game.
Yesterday, though, Cronje's former team-mates paid tribute to an inspirational leader and an endearing prankster. The Test player Jacques Kallis said that Cronje was a very special person who played a major role in his life. "I hope people will remember him for all the positive things," he added.
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