Disgraced former South Africa captain Hansie Cronje is trying to make a comeback, according to media reports. Everyone deserves a second chance in life, and it would be cruel not to show sympathy for the mental trauma and distress Cronje must have undergone after his wrongdoings in the match fixing scam first came to light. But compassion cannot take away the crime.

Cronje is challenging his ban in a court of law, but it seems he has made it clear that he has no designs to fight his way back to competitive cricket; that he only wishes to be able to coach young cricketers.

But young cricketers? Where can a fallen idol do more harm than with impressionable children and adolescents? What will he tell them if they want to know the inside story? Can the kids feel comfortable with someone who has taken bribes misusing his special position as South Africa captain? Will he continue to show genuine "contrition and remorse", or will he occasionally give out the wrong signals?

The most dangerous development in South Africa is the theory being propounded by many there that their former skipper has been made a scapegoat while others guilty of cricket corruption have got away with it. Unfortunately, there is truth in that assertion, but equally unfortunately, the argument is being used to attempt a reduction in the punishment meted out to Cronje, rather than insist on bringing others to book.

In this regard, while the Indian Board showed the way by the stern action it took against the guilty, other cricket bodies seem to have taken the easy way out. Alec Stewart has been cleared of all charges for lack of evidence and Mark Waugh and Shane Warne, whose indiscretions the ACB covered up, continue to enjoy their celebrity status.

And what does the common man think of the post-Hansiegate scenario? Despite the hype surrounding the ICC and other probes into the scandal, he remains unimpressed. He believes, and it is hard to fault him on this score, that but for the fortuitous discovery by the Delhi police of Cronje's involvement with bookmakers, the western media would have perpetuated the myth that cricket corruption is an exclusively Asian phenomenon. After all, when Mark Waugh was forced to break his prolonged silence, and denied Mukesh Gupta's claims, did not an Australian cricket official suggest he would rather believe the Australian cricketer than the Indian bookmaker?

The common man believes that match fixing still goes on. At parties, at clubs, at social gatherings, cricket enthusiasts constantly tell me that the menace has not been and cannot be rooted out. Every time India loses a match or a trophy within its grasp, they tell you, "I told you so." The cynicism is widespread and will continue to be so unless the ICC shows the will to punish the corrupt.

The worst aspect of this cynicism, as I gather from these unavoidable cricket conversations, is that the hard core cricket fanatic does not seem to mind occasional straying by his heroes from the strait and narrow path, so long as the cricket extravaganza continues with all its trappings.

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