Australian skipper Steve Waugh has backed the decision to ban disgraced former South African captain Hansie Cronje from any involvement in cricket during his lifetime.

Waugh said Cronje, who admitted receiving money from bookmakers in exchange for information on matches and offering team-mates match-fixing bribes, must now accept the United Cricket Board of South Africa's decision, which was announced yesterday.

``He admitted he did a lot of things wrong and he has to take the punishment," Waugh said.

``I think people are getting sick of it all, but the good thing is the administration is doing something about it by giving punishment."

``It's sad for cricket and sad for himself, but someone had to be made an example of because it's been going around for too long.''

Cronje was a 'good fella' Waugh added, but had fallen foul of his weakness for money.

``I don't know where it went wrong for him. I always thought he played 100% and gave his all for his country, but the money just got the better of him and he couldn't get out of it.

``It's a sad state of events because he was a very good player.''

Lawyers were considering whether the UCB's ban covered cricket commentating on top of playing, coaching, marketing and administration after a television station offered Cronje a six-figure sum for an interview and stints as a summariser.

UCBSA president Percy Sonn said: ``In theory we cannot stop him from commentating, but we have a good relationship with our sponsors and we would anticipate that they would not want to aggravate us by using him, just as we would not want to aggravate them by using rival sponsors.''

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