Mr. Hamid Cassim This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Indiatimes Cricket

   www.wcw99.com/news/200829inews - [Cached]

   Published on: 12/3/2000   Last Visited: 3/18/2001

   I went through the Sharjah-Cup giving 100 % and was obviously disappointed at not playing in the fourth match , thus ending my long run of consecutive matches for SA. ( the Hamid referred to is Cassim ).
   
   24 ] Wilkinson testified that she telephoned Cronjé on the morning of 7 April 2000 and told him of the reports that he had been charged with match fixing by the Indian Police. According to Wilkinson , Cronjé snorted ( a kind of snort-laugh ) and asked her if she knew anything else she said not and Cronjé asked her to let him know if she found out anything else.
   
   ...
   58 ] Further light was shed on the meeting in Durban by the evidence of Cassim. He it was who flew down to Durban from Johannesburg to arrange a meeting between Cronjé and Sanjay ( at the latter's request ) at the hotel at which both were staying. In fact Sanjay paid for Cassim's flight from Johannesburg to Durban return , a flight which Cassim made despite considerable personal inconvenience.
   ...
   59 ] Cassim was present at the discussion between Sanjay and Cronjé ; he professed to be watching cricket on TV at the time ; he took no part in the discussion , but was able to recall what was discussed in the approximately 10 minutes that the conversation between Cronjé and Sanjay lasted.
   
   60 ] Cassim and Cronjé are substantially ad idem as to the contents of the discussion.
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   62 ] Cassim confirmed this in his evidence in chief , confirming also the correctness of a question put to him by his Counsel , Adv. Witz :.
   
   MR WITZ : And you told the Commissioner that they were also discussing the number of runs in the one-day games and you also heard them talking about team selection ; who would be batting ; which order ; and who would be bowling. And this related in particular to the one-day games. Would that be correct. MR CASSIM :.
   
   Correct.
   
   63 ] Under questioning by the Commissioner and Brendon Manca , junior counsel for the UCB ( to Jeremy Gauntlett S.C. ) , Cassim confirmed that Cronjé and Sanjay were discussing match forecasting ; he explained this phenomenon as follows :.
   
   COMMISSIONER : What is meant by match forecasting , what is meant by that. Who is going to win and who is going to lose.
   
   MR CASSIM : No I think match – they were discussing like what scores will go. If my memory serves me correct , the pitch. He was asking players that were going to play. I mean forecasting , I can't recall the forecasting part that's why I am just trying to think carefully. Well as far as I can remember it was not who was going to win and who is going to lose.
   
   COMMISSIONER : Well then what is the forecasting , how many runs a team is going to make. How many runs a team is going to make. How many runs an individual is going to make.
   ...
   MR CASSIM : I think how many runs the team was going to make.
   
   ...
   MR CASSIM : Correct.
   
   COMMISSIONER : Forecasting how many runs the team is going to make that seems to me to be running very close to match-fixing , what would you think about that.
   
   MR CASSIM : I have never been involved in betting so it was very difficult for me to think what was happening.
   
   COMMISSIONER : What do you think now.
   
   MR CASSIM : What I gather in all the information that's floating around there could have been possibly something happening between the two of them..
   
   64 ] Adv.
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   Cassim was asked what Cronjé and Sanjay were saying about forecasting and , having again asserted that he was not a betting man in order to explain his supposed ignorance of the full import of what was being discussed , replied that forecasting related to what scores the two teams were going to make and to who would probably win". Cassim told of Cronjé and Sanjay discussing possible scores at King's Park , Durban – the side batting first would probably get 250 runs and for the side batting second the ball will swing and you will get less".
   
   65 ] All this was in respect of the following day's match , an ODI between South Africa and Zimbabwe. It is necessary to quote at some length , Cronjé's evidence under questioning by Adv.
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   67 ] The meeting , of an estimated 10 minutes duration , ended with Sanjay giving Cronjé a sum of money amounting to $ 10 , 000 – $ 15 , 000 ; Cassim was still present ; it is not without significance that both Cronjé and Sanjay were prepared to conduct the whole transaction in Cassim's presence.
   ...
   94 ] Thus it was Cassim who set up the initial meeting in Durban. He in fact flew down from Johannesburg ( and back the same day ) by pre-arrangement at Sanjay's expense in order to introduce Sanjay to Cronjé.
   ...
   96 ] Cassim was present during the discussion , which he had arranged. He testified that he took no part in it and occupied himself with watching a cricket match on TV. He did however admit to having heard parts of the conversation ( the meeting lasted approximately 10 minutes ) and to having seen Sanjay hand Cronjé a sealed envelope which he assumed contained not just money , but US dollars ( he was right! ) . He professed to have been shocked by what he saw.
   
   97 ] After Sanjay returned to London he and Cassim kept in telephonic contact. Thereafter when Sanjay was in India in March 2000 , particularly at the time of the first ODI at Cochin ( or perhaps earlier ) , staying in the same hotel as the SA team , he telephoned Cassim in Johannesburg an estimated 20 – 30 times requiring him to make contact with Cronjé in order to set up a meeting of Sanjay and Cronjé.
   
   98 ] At this time , in India , Cronjé was constantly being telephoned by Cassim , sometimes in the small hours of the morning ; during this period Sanjay was himself in direct telephonic contact with Cronjé which makes one wonder why , if Cassim was merely an intermediary ( as he would have it ) it was necessary for him to telephone Cronjé as often as he did , if he needed to at all.
   
   99 ] Cassim denied Cronjé's evidence that he , Cassim kept telephoning Cronjé and saying that he should speak to Sanjay who was now worse off than before ( having been financially involved in the Cochin ODI ) , that he needed to make some money and that Cronjé would have to deliver something.
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   Cassim denied this too. Indeed on a number of occasions in his evidence Cronjé regarded Sanjay and Cassim as co-participants rather than Cassim as an intermediary or facilitator.
   
   100 ] Cassim destroyed a pre-paid cellphone card which he used to make calls to Sanjay and receive calls from him on the day Cronjé's revelations were made public because he said , he became scared and was afraid that Sanjay was going to call him on that number ; he did not however concede that he was trying to destroy evidence.
   
   101 ] Cassim described himself and Cronjé as very close friends.
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   Cassim made innumerable telephone calls to Cronjé in late January 2000 during the Triangular series between South Africa , England and Zimbabwe.
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   104 ] According to Cassim , Cronjé phoned him after the storm had broken and told him not to say anything.
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   106 ] Cassim also showed up in Sharjah , Dubai , after the Indian tour , in March 2000. He contacted Cronjé indicating that Sanjay wanted to resume contact with him , as Cronjé put it , … along the same lines as in India. Cronjé continued I had by now developed sufficient resolve to put it all behind me , and told him that I was not interested. One must assume that Sanjay did not realise that Cronjé had been spinning him along.
   
   107 ] It would also appear that Cassim was more closely connected to Sanjay's betting activities than he , Cassim , is prepared to admit. Cronjé opined that Cassim knew that Sanjay was putting money on matches and that he knew that Cronjé was going to try and assist him.
   
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   1.3 the persons who were aware of the payment – in addition to Cronjé and Sanjay , one Hamid Cassim who brought them together and whose role in the transactions between them may not at this stage have been fully determined.
   
   1.4 any decisions , actions or omissions by Cronjé or anybody else as a result of such payment : -