CHENNAI: "She is going to cry you know,” says Gordon Parsons, pointing to his wife Hester on a hot Monday afternoon at The Daily Coffee Café in Potchefstroom. “No, I’m not… I’m not going to cry today,” responds Hester with a resolute smile as she sips her cappuccino.
It was less than 24 hours since South Africa played their first-ever senior cricket World Cup final. This conversation started with that historic evening in Cape Town before drifting off in various directions, including the U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup that happened in the town. But every turn invariably turned to one point — a topic hard to avoid with them — that of Hester’s brother. Former South African captain Hansie Cronje, a leader who united a nation soon after apartheid.
The Bloemfontein-born man was the central figure of South African sport in the 1990s. He was the one the Rainbow Nation looked up to and rallied behind. The masterful tactician who wielded his wand to create magic on the cricket field, the most successful ODI captain for South Africa (win %), third-most successful in the world (minimum 40 games), most consecutive ODIs as captain... this list of accomplishments goes on. He was the icon for a country trying to rebuild its identity in the post-apartheid era.
He was the one who led them into the new millennium. Until it all came crashing down like a pack of cards. A match-fixing scandal, followed by a life ban after his confession — where he admitted accepting money from bookmakers — at the King Commission in 2000. It came as a shock to not just Hansie’s family, but the entire cricketing world.
A little over two years later, he would lose his life in a plane crash.
Two decades have passed since Hester’s family lost Hansie. And yet, there isn’t a day that goes by without a conversation about him in the Parsons’ household. “Ask my family. My daughter is going to tell you, ‘two things you don’t fight with mum; one, the Grey College, the school Hansie went to, and Hansie',” Hester breaks into laughter in the drawing room of their house.
Behind her is a wall that is decorated with pictures of her brother. In fact, it is impossible to turn your eye in a direction where there isn’t a Hansie footprint. The garage, the living room, everywhere you go, they are filled with cricketing memories of Gordon and Hansie, especially the latter. From backyard cricket to Orange Free State to the South African team, there isn't much that hasn't been chronicled. It could easily be mistaken as a shrine of South Africa’s once-beloved sporting hero.
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Born only 13 months after brother, Hester is as close to a twin sibling as one could get. Admittedly, she was extremely close with her brother growing up and took the longest to move on with her life after his demise. Her eyes well up, just as Gordon had suggested, as she opens up about their family’s grief.
“I think people take different amounts of time to get over things. I took longer than the rest of my family as you can see,” she smiles, fighting back tears. “I don’t think I will ever get over it. My mum always says, ‘your mind tells you that your child is going to bury you, you are the older one.’ So, I do not want to know what it is like to bury a child. It is hard. We did a lot together. We were close, sorry (wipes her tears). To get closure, yes, they say time heals, but I don’t think a day goes by where I don’t talk about him or think about him,” she says.
Hester and Gordon have been running a cricket academy — Dragons Junior Cricket Academy — for over 20 years now, with the former also working as a teacher at Potchefstroom Central School. However, for the longest time after her brother's demise, Hester and the entire family distanced themselves from the sport.
For a household where cricket was a mandatory topic of discussion at the dinner table, it was unthinkable. For them, the sport was a sore reminder that their son was no longer with them. Cricket was supposed to keep people out of trouble but for Cronje’s family, it was the root cause. Hester, who had spent her entire childhood bowling and fielding to Hansie and her other brother, Frans, could not bring herself to watch cricket after the former’s passing. It was only when she was thrown into the deep end at the school where she was working (she had no choice but to coach the age-group cricket teams), that Hester got involved in the sport again.
Teaching young students about sport, building their love for it and creating a bond with them outside the classroom, that is where Hester’s true passion for the game blossomed. When Gordon and she started the academy 21 years ago, the purpose was to ensure that children who could not afford private coaching were involved in the sport. For them, it was a chance to give back. What started with 93 students in the first year has blossomed into a vibrant community with the academy now housing close to 160 budding cricketers, with the majority of them being girls. Their son, James, and daughter, Alexandrea, too, are certified level 2 coaches. Cricket, once again, has taken over their lives.
Measuring or understanding the legacy of an athlete, especially someone like Hansie, who had a decade of glory before the allegations, accusations and confession, can be tricky. While his name stirs mixed feelings for many cricket fans in South Africa, it does seem like the emotions have changed or rather mellowed down a bit with time. Hansie represents different things to different people; a fallen super star, a story of what could have been, a flawed hero who was human and so on.
Ask Hester what her brother's legacy is and she has a straight answer. “I think, to everybody it would mean something different. To my son, it would mean something different, to my daughter, to me, what it is to my husband, especially my mum. What is it for me? Even though cricket was his downfall in the end, I want to change lives through cricket and help people experience what he experienced (in the sport). For, I think he lived a full life because of cricket.”
It is incredible how cricket and Cronje’s family are inseparable even after everything they have been through. Bertha, Hansie’s wife, who remarried Jacques du Plessis and has a family of her own in George (a city in the Western Cape province), has two teenage sons who love playing cricket as well. “She has been amazing. See, now I am getting teared up, she is an unbelievable person. She remarried to a wonderful guy and has two wonderful children and good sportsmen. They know about him and the history, which I think is wonderful and has kept in so much part of their lives. You forget that they are not Hansie’s children, they have a close relationship with my mum. We keep in touch, still close, it is largely due to the type of person she is as well. Hansie and she were married for seven years, it sounds short but it is a long time. It just shows you how life happens, it happens so quickly just when he was busy getting his life back together, he passed away,” says Hester.
Through the conversation, Hester had to not only navigate her emotions but also the menagerie she nurtures at home. The list comprises 12 cats and two kittens, 28 rabbits, seven birds, two tanks with tropical fish, two chinchillas, a corn snake, a tortoise, and her daughter’s two English bulldogs. While she grew up in a household with a lot of pets, she pauses when asked if it has become a coping mechanism over the years. “It is healing,” she says after a minute.
“There is nothing like the care you give to the animal and the satisfaction that you get. The little kitten we took in was almost dead. I think it is healing, we live in a society where people are getting more and more self-centred. In school, I teach the children to care for others. I got fish in my classroom, it is amazing to see the love children develop for animals. I think they teach us a lot. So to me, you can see excessively, not an obsession, but animals play a big part in my life.”
In 2021, Netflix released a documentary called ‘Bad Sport’ in which the episode ‘The Fallen Idol’ tracked Hansie's journey to the top and his fall after. The episode featured Hester, Frans, Bertha, Dr. Ali Bacher (the then CEO of United Cricket Board of South Africa), Marlon Aronstam (the bookmaker), several former South African cricketers and journalists who were closely involved in the aftermath of Delhi Police’s unearthed audio recordings featuring the former South African captain. To relive the whole thing after two decades for the documentary was a “healing process” for Hester.
“I took the longest to forgive people. It was really nice when I eventually saw Dr. Ali Bacher. We went for a coffee and talked. I always had respect for him. He actually came last year to speak at the University and I saw him. I still hang on to every word he says, he is an incredible man. To me what had happened was unfortunate. You still read things in the press and 20,000 good comments and I would hammer on the one negative. It is funny how the human brain works, you are just tuned in on that and then, I immediately want to defend him, he is not here to defend himself.
“In the documentary, I still learn things from it. I mean you listen to the bookmaker (Marlon) being interviewed. He himself says he should never have been allowed to get so close to Hansie like he did. You see, now I get angry. Why didn't you protect him (Hansie)? It happens, but that should not have been allowed. So, you sort of feel protective, he himself said he was surprised and he (Marlon) phoned the office number and they just gave it. In hindsight, those things should not have happened. Yes, lessons were learnt, I don’t think it happens anymore. So, good has come from it. If it could change something and help somebody, it was worth it,” says Hester, trying to hold back her emotions. The tears come still just as Gordon had said a couple of hours before.