On 25th September 1969 a South African superstar Wessel Johannes popularly known in the world of cricket by name 'Hansie Cronje' was born in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State Province, South Africa. He graduated in 1987 from Grey college bloemfontein and later earned a bachelor of commerce degree from University of the free state.
He represented Orange free state province in cricket and rugby at the school level. He had an elder brother Frans Cronje and a younger sister Haster Parsons. Not many of them know that his father had represented Orange free state in cricket in 1960s, from his early childhood days he had a shear passion for cricket.
Hansie made his first-class cricket debut for Orange Free State against Transvaal at Johannesburg in January 1988 at the age of 18 and then there was no looking back, he went on to make his province state win all the inter state matches with his bating brilliance by scoring maiden centuries which earned him a place in the national cricket team after having played first class cricket for four years.
Cronje made his one day international debut against Australia in the 1992 Cricket world cup, but the turning point of his career came in the year 1993 when South African National Cricket team toured India and during their tour in one of the historical matches he hit a famous six when his team needed merely 6 runs to win from 1 ball and they lifted the trophy, post the series from just being the youngest experienced player in the team he went onto become the captain of the south african national cricket side was one of the benchmarks which no other south african cricketer had achieved by that time.
Hansie Cronje has been named as one of the greatest all rounders South Africa and cricket world has ever produced.
Cronje was the only captain which had taken South Africa to semifinals in he 1999 cricket world cup prior no other captain had ever been able to make South Africa qualify for even the league matches. Even in the eyes of Sachin Tendulkar Cronje was one of the dangerous bowlers to face during 1990s era.
In the year of 1999 Hansie Cronje became the most popular personality of South Africa, not only he was a great great batsman of all time but also an exceptional fielder in the team after Johnty Rohdes & Herschelle Gibbs. Cronje played a pioneer role in finding and also shaping up few of the greatest cricketers for South African cricket which include the likes of Johnty Rohdes, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Mark Boutcher, Patt Symcox and Shaun Pollock.
But unfortunately the legend of cricket bid his final good bye to the world of cricket in June 2002
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