Cronje cashing on his disgrace -- report

Cronje cashing on his disgrace -- report
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

DURBAN, JULY 30: Disgraced former South African captain Hansie Cronje has hired a leading London `Scandal Merchant' to help him cash in on his fall from grace in the cricketing world, newspaper reports said here on Sunday.

According to the reports, Max Clifford, a celebrity public relations agent, has confirmed that he was promoting Cronje and brokering interviews and book deals.

He was also floating the idea of a Cronje film following queries from international script writers.

Clifford confirmed that the deals made so far include an interview with the Australian 60 minutes television programme which, newspapers said, netted him 800,000 rands ($117,800).

Also a contract for an undisclosed amount with the South African TV station, M-Net Superspot, to film him for three days and an interview with British tabloid, News of the World, which has already paid large sums for exclusive interviews.

Clifford said he is in talks with four publishers about a Cronje book deal for which a figure of 1000,000 to 250,000 pounds sterling ($151,148 to 377,871) has been mentioned in industry circles.

Cronje, who earned 800,000 rand ($115,360) a year as South Africa's captain and who was paid about $100,000 by dodgy bookmakers, stands to pocket more from telling about his disgrace than he made by disgracing himself.

A commission of inquiry into the match-fixing allegations has heard that Cronje, who was fired in April, on five occasions took money from the bookmakers between 1996 and 2000.

Cronje admitted to the King Commission that he had a ``great love for money.''

But Clifford insisits his involvement with Cronje is ``not all about money'' but about setting the record straight.

He was quoted as saying that he began working with Cronje after the cricketer's lawyer approached him several weeks ago.

``He is not a child molester or a murderer. All he did was rip off crooked bookmakers,'' Clifford said.

He also said he would charge Cronje the same amount as he would charge Frank Sinatra or anyone else.

``I've had people from literally all over the world who want to do interviews. The status of the book... it's a question of sitting down and writing it. The ballpark figure could vary from very little to a lot. It depends on how successful it is,'' he said.

Approached for comment, Cronje's lawyer, Leslie Sackstein, refused to discuss the matter.

``All you are trying to get is a cheap interview,'' he said.