OTD 2002 – Hansie Cronje passed away in a plane crash

On this day in 2002, the cricketing fraternity suffered a huge blow with the sudden death of former South Africa skipper Hansie Cronje due to a plane crash. Considered to be one of the best skippers, Cronje (32 years) was in the AirQuarius cargo flight that crashed on Cradock Peak in the Outeniqua mountain range.

It has been 21 years since the unfortunate incident occurred that cut short the cricketer’s life. It must be noted that just two years before the incident, the former South Africa skipper had confessed to accepting money from bookmakers to provide information and fix matches. It was also revealed that he accepted a total of $130,000 from bookmakers between a period of 1996 and 2000.

As he bid adieu from the cricketing arena after accepting his mistakes, the Proteas player entered the corporate world and tried to make a name for himself. However, his second innings was cut short on 1st June 2002, when his flight crashed due to some technical issues. It must be noted that Cronje was not even supposed to be on that flight, however, he missed his scheduled flight from Johannesburg due to heavy traffic and detours. Talking about his cricket career, Cronje represented South Africa in 188 ODIs and amassed a total of 5565 runs at a decent average of 38.65. He also stroked 39 fifties and two centuries for his country. In the longest format of the game, the all-rounder played 68 Test matches and scored 3714 runs at an average of 36.41. He scored 23 fifties and six centuries in the red-ball format. With the ball, Cronje scalped 43 and 114 wickets in ODIs and Test formats, respectively. Under his captaincy, South Africa won 27 matches and lost 11.