Wessel Johannes "Hansie Cronje was a South African cricketer (all-rounder) and captain of the South African national cricket team in the 1990s. He was voted the 11th greatest South African in 2004 despite having been banned for life from professional cricket for his role in a match-fixing scandal.
Born in Bloemfontein, he matriculated in 1987 from the prestigious Grey College school in Bloemfontein. An excellent all round sportsman, he represented the then Orange Free State in cricket and rugby at schools level. He made his first class debut playing for Orange Free State against Transvaal at Johannesburg in 1987/1988 at the age of 18. He made his Test debut against West Indies at Bridgetown in 1991 and one-day international debut against Australia at Sydney in the 1992 cricket World Cup soon after the ban on South Africa was lifted. (South Africa was banned from international cricket in 1970 for the apartheid policies followed by the government). Under his captaincy South Africa won 27 Tests and lost 11. He captained the One Day International team to 99 wins out of 138 one day internationals with one match drawn. He scored 3,714 Test runs in 68 Test matches at an average of 36.41 with 6 Test centuries. He also took 43 Test wickets. He scored over 5,000 ODI runs in nearly 200 ODIs at an average of 38.64 with just 2 centuries. He also took over 100 ODI wickets. He has over 10,000 first class runs at an average of 43.69 and 184 first class wickets at an average of 34.43. On 1 June 2002 Hansie Cronje missed a scheduled flight home from Bloemfontein to George and instead hitched a ride as the only passenger on a cargo flight in a Hawker Siddeley 748 turboprop aircraft. Near George airport, the pilots lost visibility in cloud, and were unable to land, partly due to unserviceable navigational equipment. While circling, the plane crashed into the Outeniqua mountains northeast of the airport. Hansie Cronje and the two pilots were killed. He was 32.