Cronje made his first-class debut for Orange Free State against Transvaal at Johannesburg in January 1988 at the age of 18.

In South Africa's next Test series against Sri Lanka Cronje scored his second Test century, 122 in the second Test in Colombo ; the victory margin of an innings and 208 runs is a South African record.

In early 1995, South Africa won one-off tests against both Pakistan and New Zealand, in Auckland Cronje scored the only century of the match before a final day declaration left his bowlers barely enough time to dismiss the Kiwis.

South Africa won the five Test series against England 1-0 despite Cronje struggling, scoring 113 runs at 18. 83.

Cronje produced better form against Australia, averaging over 50 in both test and ODI series although both were lost.

Cronje once again came up against Australia and once again ended on the losing side.

During the 1998 Test series against England, Cronje scored five consecutive fifties, having failed to score one in the nine previous Tests against them.

At the 1999 World Cup, Cronje finished with 98 runs at 12. 25 as South Africa was eliminated after the famous tied semi-final against Australia at Edgbaston.

In October 1999, Cronje became South Africa's highest Test run scorer during the first Test against Zimbabwe.

The highest sixth-wicket stand for South Africa in ODIs is the 137 between Hansie Cronje and Shaun Pollock against Zimbabwe in 1997.

In the first match of the tournament versus India, Cronje came onto the field with an earpiece wired to coach Bob Woolmer, but at the first drinks break match referee Talat Ali ordered him to remove it.

Hansie is a biographical film released in 2008 about the life of Hansie Cronje that aims to portray him in a positive light and as a victim of circumstance lured by an evil system of illegal gambling and bookmakers from India.

After the World Cup Cronje was part of the tour to the West Indies ; he featured in the three ODI's and in the Test match at Bridgetown that followed he made his Test debut, this was South Africa first Test since readmission and they came close to beating a strong West Indian side, going into the final day at 122 / 2 chasing 200 they collapsed to 148.

An injury to captain Kepler Wessels meant Cronje was captain for the final day of the match.

Between the second and third tests, the one-day tournament continued, now with Cronje as captain, South Africa made the final series but lost it 2-1 to Australia.

Cronje started the ODI series with scores of 112, 97, 45 and 50 * and when Australia played Orange Free State in their final match before the first Test, Cronje hit 251 off 306 balls, 200 of these came on the final day in which 294 runs were added.

Cronje started 1997-98 by leading South Africa to their first series victory in Pakistan, his batting continued to struggle with his biggest contribution being taking the wickets of Inzamam-ul-Haq and Moin Khan in the Third Test.

In the first Test, Cronje scored 70 as South Africa saved the match ; in the second Test, he lasted 335 minutes for his 88.

Cronje missed the first Test of the series with Pakistan because of a knee injury.

The first was won with Cronje scoring 49 and 74 ; in the second Test, he took 3 / 14, his best bowling in Tests, and smashed 82 off 63 balls, his fifty being brought up with three consecutive sixes off Muttiah Muralitharan, and was reached off just 31 balls ; at the time, it was the second fastest in Tests after Kapil Dev's.

However, England won the Test, and the one at Headingley, to win the series 2-1, Cronje finished the series as South Africa's top scorer with 401 runs at 66. 83.

In the West Indies series of 1998-99, Cronje captained South Africa to their only whitewash in a five Test series.

When South Africa reached 248 / 8, Cronje declared ; both teams then forfeited an innings leaving England a target of 249 to win the Test, which they did with two wickets left and only five balls remaining.

It was later learnt Cronje accepted money and a gift from a bookmaker in return for making an early declaration in this Test.

In the 2000 Centurion Test, Marlon Aronstam contacted him offering R500, 000 for the charity of his choice together with a gift if Cronje declared and made a game of it.

In the one-day series Cronje managed just one fifty but with the ball he was economical and took his career best figures of 5 / 32, becoming the second South African to take five wickets in an ODI.

Cronje scored only one century on the whole tour and scored only 90 runs in the three-test series.

Cronje, who'd previously been vice-captain, was named as captain for the test series with New Zealand in 1994-95.

Before the one-day series, Cronje received repeated calls from " Sanjay " asking him to fix a match.

Most notoriously, Gibbs was involved in the match fixing affair with former captain Hansie Cronje, who offered him $ 15, 000 to score " less than 20 " in the 3rd One-day International of a series.

He retired after the series, handing over the reins to teammate Hansie Cronje.

In 1997, Cronje played for Ireland as an overseas player in the Benson and Hedges Cup and helped them to a 46-run win over Middlesex by scoring 94 not out and taking three wickets.

Wessel Johannes " Hansie " Cronje ( 25 September 1969 – 1 June 2002 ) was a South African cricketer and captain of the South African national cricket team in the 1990s.

* 25 September-Wessel Johannes Cronje, all-rounder cricketer, is born in Bloemfontein

In 1995, Cronje appeared for Leicestershire where he scored 1301 runs at 52. 04 finishing the season as the county's leading scorer.

Cronje scored 354 runs at an average of 88. 50.

The following day, Gibbs revealed that Cronje had offered him $ 15, 000 to score less than 20 runs in the 5th ODI at Nagpur.

After the match Aronstam visited Cronje, giving him two amounts of money ( R30, 000 and R20, 000 ) together with a leather jacket.

Cronje, aged 32, and the two pilots were killed instantly.

However, two months later, General Cronje was outflanked by his enemy General French's dash to relieve the siege of Kimberley, and retreated to Jacobsdal from Kimberley.

Other controversial choices included an 11th placing for Hansie Cronje, the disgraced former captain of the South African cricket squad, who admitted to taking bribes to influence the outcome of test matches.