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Friday, September 26, 2008

Hansie


I wonder how many people overseas know about our Cricket Captain of the past, Hansie Cronje. I don't know how far his story reached, but I do know one thing...It reached inside the hearts of every South African alive during that time.

Hansie Cronje was our Cricket Captain in the 1990's. He was a hero and to many, still is. During this time though, he was involved in match fixing. He accepted money from bookies for information about the team, conditions ect.

He made a mistake.

Hansie was a Christian. He openly expressed his faith in front of the media and his team. When he made these mistakes, he felt shattered and didn't know if even God would forgive him. He fought his battle with guilt for 18 months after and eventually found peace when a pastor whom he was close to told him that God had forgiven him a long time ago, now all he needed to do was forgive himself. Hansie was baptised and began working to get his life back on track with the help of his wife and family. Slowly but surely, he began to regain the nations love and forgiveness. Granted, not everyone forgave him, but many did, and were the better people for it.

Hansie was involved in a plane crash on the 1st June 2002 and died. He left behind a legacy though. What touched me the most was that this man made a huge mistake. He betrayed a nations trust and had to live through all the hurt and guilt that came with it. But, he could have dealt with the situation differently. He could have kept quiet and never told the truth. He could have denied it all. But, he didn't.

Hansie got on national television and asked the nation for forgiveness. He confessed to us all what he done and how sorry he was. He was prepared to accept whatever the world threw at him after that.

That took courage that I'm sure most of us do not have.

The reason for this post, is that the Hansie Movie came out in South African cinemas this week. Ryan and I went and saw it last night.

It has been made by his family and it shows Hansie's rise and fall from grace. Its accurate and truthful. I cried openly for a man who had enough courage to tell the truth, no matter what the consequences. This man will forever be a South African hero to so many.

Those many include me.



8 comments:

aurora said...

Sounds like an amazing story.

It takes a lot of courage to admit wrongdoing. So glad that he was able to live the life that he did before he died.

Colleen said...

wow, i hope it will come out in nz!

xoxo

Help I need a user name! said...

What a great story of courage and forgiveness! Those are always my favorites. I wonder if the story will be told in the U.S. I hadn't heard of it before this, but it would be a good story for people to see.

Nancy Face said...

This was very touching...I'm glad you posted about him! :)

Bravo Bentley said...

that is amazing ... I so want to know more about it now awesome chell!!! oh and the site is taaz.com it's so cool to transform yourself instantly

angiedunn said...

um, that's amazing. thanks for sharing. i love cool people that change the world by having integrity & courage!

Lynese Morris said...

I agree wth all that you say. Well done for this honest and brave post.

Hannahkin said...

oh, Hansie!

i've been called Hansie before :) it's the, erm, let me get this right... the masculine Dutchified version of my name :)

i can't wait to watch it! i've been looking forward to it for a long time and when i saw that Frank was playing Hansie... i got more excited than ever. He was incredible in Faith Like Potatoes!

it's an amazing story. i remember when his plane crashed, though i was pretty young - Grade 4 - so i didn't know his story too well. but a couple years ago, Peter Pollock (Shaun's dad) preached at our church and spoke a lot about him. it moved me deeply and i'm sure that the movie will, too. thanks for blogging about it!

(thanks also for the comment on my kitty photo! :) i meant to reply but it was the last week of school [ = crazy! ] and then we went away to Kruger for a whole week [bleugh!] so i only got back this weekend :) your braai sounded marvellous! we didn't braai on Wednesday, but we did enough braaiing in the bush that i think we made up for it :D )