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Quotes Cricket pays its tributes

Rescue workers have removed the bodies of Hansie Cronje, a pilot and co-pilot from a remote mountain after Saturday's fatal plane crash, a South African aviation official said. "All three bodies have been removed from the mountain. They have been taken to a mortuary where post-mortems will be performed."

The spokesman said the bodies were removed from the wreckage of a 45-seater Hawker-Siddeley 748 cargo plane, which crashed into mountains near Cronje's home town of George. The plane, which had taken off from the central city of Bloemfontein, crashed into the rugged Outeniqua range at a height of some 1000 metres (about 3000 feet) in bad weather when it tried to land at George around 6.45am (0445 GMT).

The spokesman said CAA crash investigators were at the scene in the steep mountains some 430 kilometres (260 miles) east of Cape Town. The investigators were retrieving the flight voice and data recorders. "It will give us a good idea of what happened in the final moments of the crash."

Cronje, who was captain of the national team, and regarded as a brilliant cricketer, was forced out of the side in an international bribery scandal in 2000. He received a life ban from the United Cricket Board of South Africa after admitting before a commission of inquiry that he had accepted some $100,000 from Indian bookmakers and offered other players money to under-perform, though he said he never threw a match.

Last year Cronje had vowed to stay in South Africa and make up for his mistake, but in October he failed in a bid to overturn the lifetime ban on the basis that it was "unconstitutional" in the Pretoria High Court, a decision warmly welcomed at the time by the International Cricket Council's president Malcolm Gray: "Any other verdict would have sent the wrong message to cricket and its followers around the world."

However, Cronje was allowed to pursue a limited career in coaching and the media, and recently became a financial manager for a Johannesburg company.

The United Cricket Board said it was shocked and saddened by Cronje's death. "Our thoughts and deepest condolences go out to Hansie's wife Bertha, his parents Ewie and San-Marie and the whole family," said Percy Sonn, the president. "Hansie was an excellent cricketer and a very popular and successful captain, who led his team to some great achievements and who gave much to cricket in this country during his career."

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd