‘Hi, I am Banjo, the man K K Paul (Delhi Police Commissioner) is looking for’

Johannesburg, December 4: “Are you from India? Come to watch the cricket?” Not very tall, his shaven head shining under the bright lights of the Sandon City mall barely two minutes away from the hotel where the Indian team is, the “fan” reaches out for a quick handshake.

It’s Sunday night, a bit after 10.30 pm, India have lost the one-day series 0-4, and out come the words, with a naughty smile, that shakes the heart. “Hi, I am Banjo, the man K K Paul is looking for.”

Meet Hamid ‘Banjo’ Cassim, the ‘Biltong man’, a key figure in the match-fixing scandal of 2000, the sweetshop owner of Johannesburg who first introduced former South African captain Hansie Cronje to London-based bookie Sanjeev Chawla.

“No, no, no, you can’t take my picture, you will put in the newspapers tomorrow,” says Cassim, in his early 50s, a bit rattled after a business card is handed over.

But he doesn’t turn away, he stays, and talks, pausing only to suppress a few nervous laughs. “Yes, I introduced Hansie to (Sanjeev) Chawla. But that was all. I never knew Chawla before, I just helped him meet Hansie. I was never involved in anything that happened after,” he says, adding that he is now in the “cellphone business”.

So will he come to India to answer questions from the Delhi Police team, headed by Commissioner Paul, which tapped phone conversations between Hansie and Chawla during South Africa’s India tour six years ago to expose the scandal? “No, I will never come to India. Why should I? I have not got any papers from them. But even if I did, I will never come there, I have done no wrong,” says Cassim.

(On October 12 this year, South African player Herschelle Gibbs told Delhi police that he knew “Banjo” Cassim and had met him during a series in Sharjah, chief investigator for the match-fixing scandal, Ranjit Narayan, told The Indian Express in New Delhi today. But he does not recall if the police have done anything to get to Cassim since 2000, he said.)

Cassim quickly steers the subject to his “friends” in Indian cricket. “I have great respect for Kapil Dev. Paaji is my hero. How is Ajay Jadeja? He was a good friend. And Mohammed Azharuddin? He is a great guy, it’s unfortunate that everybody turned on him. I knew Ali Irani (former physio) very well too, I hope he is fine,” says Cassim.

... contd.

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