Cronje rejects claims of secret accounts

Former South Africa cricket captain Hansie Cronje has rejected all allegations of secret bank accounts and deposits levelled against him in a weekend newspaper.

Cronje told a news conference on Tuesday all his bank actions are above board and he had not concealed any information from a commission of inquiry into match-fixing as suggested in Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

"I will always come out with guns blazing when people come out with such blatant lies," he told reporters at his lawyer's office in Bloemfontein.

Cronje has been banned for life from all involvement in cricket in South Africa following his admission that he took money in return for promises to influence the outcome of games.

He is scheduled to challenge the ban in court in September.

The paper suggested Cronje could face jail over deposits into bank accounts in his name during his tenure as skipper.

Cronje's lawyer Les Sackstein said he planned to ask National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka to investigate whether documents obtained by journalist Neil Manthorp, used in the Telegraph article, were in breach of an act governing the reporting of commissions.

"There seems to be a breach of the Commission's Act and if that proves to be the case we will ask Mr Ngucka to consider prosecution," Sackstein said in a phone interview.

Manthorp's employers, MWP, issued a statement on Wednesday defending the Telegraph article. "The story in the Sunday Telegraph we believe to be factually accurate," MWP said.

Mail Cricket Editor