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Team Cronje dreams up a stall

Proceedings at the Judge Edwin King Commission now inquiring into match-fixing in South Africa took an anti-climactic turn on Wednesday, with doctors for Hansie Cronje testifying that the former South African skipper is in a state of chronic depression, and thus unable to endure cross-examination.

According to the doctors, Cronje exhibits all symptoms of clinical depression, including memory loss, disorientation, paranoia and the rest.

This, said the doctors, meant Cronje wouldn't be able to take proper part in the cross-examination. 'He might panic if he thought the questioning was aggressive, or if the questions tended, in his mind, to attack his credibility,' Dr Jordan, testifying on behalf of Hansie Cronje, said.

Responding to a question by deputy public prosecutor Shamila Batohi about whether Cronje could not be questioned at all, the doctor said he could take the stand, but the questioning would need to be non-threatening. Hard questions, the doctor indicated, could induce panic attacks. He also said that in Cronje's present state, the former skipper might be a bit hazy about the finer details of the incidents of match-fixing he had mentioned in his statement before the court last Thursday.

The doctors -- Dr Jordan was followed on the witness stand by psychiatrist Ian Lewis -- thus effectively have created a situation wherein even if Cronje is questioned, he can plead loss of memory and thus keep from answering probing questions.

The doctors said that ideally, Cronje should be permitted to take treatment before taking the stand for cross-questioning. Asked how long that would take, the doctor said it would take at least six to eight weeks. He added, however, that it all depended on how well Cronje reacted to the medication.

Interestingly, when Judge King asked Cronje's lawyers if his statement had been the whole truth, the lawyers seized on it aggressively to ask the judge whether he was casting aspersions on Cronje's veracity. Michael Wallace, attorney for Hansie Cronje, said that King's statement implied he was not satisfied with Cronje's veracity.

A defensive Judge King responded that he was not pre-judging Cronje, but had asked the question only because he has to make a recommendation of amnesty to the director of public prosecutions, and for that he has to be sure that Cronje has spoken the entire truth.

Immediately after King's statement, Cronje's lawyers sought an adjournment. The hearings have, at the time of writing, been adjourned for an hour.

Earlier in the day, rediff.com's partner, Live Africa News Network, won a significant victory when the South African courts ruled that the entire testimony before the King Commission should be relayed live on radio. The judges ruled that by denying radio networks that right, Judge King had violated a constitutional right of South African citizens.

Meanwhile, present in the courtroom as observer was Malcolm Gray, who takes over from Jagmohan Dalmiya as ICC chairman on Monday.

Related report: Case coverage may be live today