But by now, Cassim’s friends join in, and he is eager to go. He refuses another request for a photograph, he won’t give his mobile number. But he says, pointing to a restaurant outside, at the Nelson Mandela Square, “If you want to see me, come to the Butcher’s Grill (The Butcher Shop & Grill). I am there every Sunday.”

As Banjo walks away, it’s time to reach for the laptop, do a quick google image search. Was that a prank? Minutes later, the face leaps at you from the screen. Yes, that was Banjo.

“It’s unbelievable, meeting him here, like this,” says Johann de Jager, senior cricket correspondent for Afrikaans daily Volksblad, who was with this reporter when Cassim spoke outside Baglios Gelataria, an ice-cream outlet. “How did he know we were involved with cricket? We weren’t talking about the game, were we? I find that strange,” adds de Jager.

Do you know he figures in a book on the scandal, asks de Jager. What is it called? “The Banjo Players.”

What he knew, and what he did

• Cassim, a Johannesburg sweetshop owner, became known as the man who facilitated the meeting between Hansie Cronje and Sanjeev Chawla in 2000.

• Allegedly introduced to Indian team by Ali Irani, the physio, in the 1992 series in South Africa.

• Has admitted he was friends with Cronje since 1993 and met Chawla in Johannesburg in early 2000.

• Chawla is then said to have asked Cassim to get Cronje to meet him and the three did meet in Durban.

... contd.