Wednesday, October 17, 2001 South African cricket is in a muddle over Hansie Cronje. The authorities over-reacted at the time, slapping a life ban on him which was supposed to apply to every facet of the game, from playing in benefit matches to commenting in the media. In a cricket world that normally favours the gentle slap on the wrist, this was Draconian in the extreme.

And it led to another over-reaction. In the electric-fenced mansions of affluent South Africa, sports-lovers whose moral sensibilities were not conspicuous in the apartheid era began to feel righteous indignation on Cronje's behalf. When the boss of the United Cricket Board, Percy Sonn, said Cronje wouldn't even be allowed to play beach cricket, he encouraged even reasonable people to take Cronje's side.

Cronje himself over-reacted too, becoming rapaciously legalistic and giving interviews in which the keynote was self-pity rather than remorse. He should have been taking the John Profumo route back from disgrace - keep your head down, do good works, and wait for the wheel of public sympathy to turn slowly in your favour.

Instead he appealed, which was unappealing. The upshot is that he still has his life ban from direct involvement in the game, which is still too harsh: as Steve Waugh said, even murderers get parole. Cronje's lawyers may be unattractive, but they were right about this. The ban should have had a realistic duration - somewhere between three years and 15 - and it should have carried with it some element of community service.

The other upshots are that Cronje is now allowed to coach in schools, if the schools will have him, which is right and proper; and that he is to be let into cricket grounds as a journalist, but not accorded the rights that the rest of us hacks enjoy - the right to sit in media centres, attend press conferences and interview players.

This is another absurdity. Either you are allowed to report and comment on the game, or you are not. The average media centre contains its fair share of reprobates, scoundrels, charlatans and other sinners, and rather more than its share of people who are creative with their expenses. There are so many ex-players in there that statistically it would be extraordinary if there wasn't someone among them who had taken a bung and got away with it. We even put up with administrators, for goodness' sake. Sitting next to Hansie would be fine by me.

Cronje did something very wrong. But it is hard to find anybody in this saga who has done much right.

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