Cronje's death probe begins Monday

Durban: Investigation on allegations that the aircraft crash in 2002 in which former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje died may not have been an accident, will be launched when the inquest into his death starts on Monday.

High Court Judge Siraj Desai and a senior assessor in Cape Town will hear the inquest.

The murder allegations have been reported in the British media because at the time of the crash Cronje was about to disclose to the police in India full details of those involved in the match-fixing saga.

But the office of Judge Desai has said that most of the evidence would be obtained from the report by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) investigation into the crash.

"There may be some action in court as interested parties have the right to cross examine witnesses and no doubt the Judge and Captain Hyde will have a few questions of their own," Judge Desai's spokesperson said.

According to reports, the CAA investigation did not find any evidence of sabotage but found that serious faults were found with the aircraft's navigation system.

The worst of these was that wires had been disconnected from vital navigational equipment on the plane.

The CAA investigation found that "compass swing tests" to check the calibration of the navigation equipment were not carried out. It also found that two wires to a "directional gyro" were disconnected before the aircraft took off.

But the CAA was not able to establish who did this.

Only one of the two directional gyros fitted to the plane was recovered. The investigation found that the pilots might not have noticed this fault at the time, leading them to trust the instrument readings.

The CAA investigation also found that the electronics at George airfield where the plane was to have landed were not functioning properly.

At the time of the crash, Cronje was working for a large insurance broking office in Pretoria after being banned for life by the United Cricket Board of South Africa and the International Cricket Council (ICC).

He was found guilty of being the king pin in match fixing with Indian bookmakers during South Africa's tour to India in 2000.

The inquest into Cronje's death will once again highlight the life of a cricketer who threw away everything for some extra "match-fixing dollars".

The match-fixing saga and Cronje's death shattered not only the Cronje family but Cronje fans all over South Africa and the world.