Murdered cricket coach Bob Woolmer denied any knowledge of match-fixing just before the 2000 King Commission of Inquiry into the Hansie Cronje scandal.
But at least a month before, he had admitted knowing about an attempt by Cronje to bribe his entire team into losing a match against India in 1996.
Woolmer was the Proteas' coach when the offer to throw the match was made and during the 1999 tour of India which led to the exposure of Cronje early in 2000.
Advocate Shamila Batohi, the commission's lead prosecutor, broke her silence for the first time about a seven-year mystery: Why didn't the King Commission call Woolmer as a witness?
She told the The Star on Tuesday that she had purposely not called him, despite reports that he had knowledge of dirty dealings, "because he didn't have anything relevant to say".
"I was only interested in witnesses who had something to say that would build my case, and he had absolutely nothing to add," she said.
Woolmer's death in Jamaica on March 18 following Pakistan's exit from the World Cup has sparked renewed speculation about his knowledge of the shadier side of cricket.
The King Commission, which first sat in May 2000, was established by President Thabo Mbeki to find out whether, during a specified period, any member of the South African cricket team or any team official had indulged in any activities related to match-fixing and related matters and to consider measures that could be taken to deal with the issue.
It followed the sacking of Cronje, who was fired as captain by the United Cricket Board in April 2000 after Indian police released transcripts of conversations, apparently between him and bookmakers, about fixing the outcomes of cricket matches.
It was on April 16, 2000, that Woolmer, a former England all-rounder and Warwickshire coach, who was coaching the South African team at the time, admitted knowledge of the Proteas having been offered $250 000 to lose a one-day international.
His admission came after former South African wicketkeeper Dave Richardson told a British newspaper that in December 1996, after a gruelling tour of warm-up matches, Tests and one-dayers, the team had been offered money to lose a benefit game which had been turned into a fully fledged one-day international.
It took three team meetings of all the players, except Allan Donald and Jonty Rhodes, before the offer was thrown out. At one of these meetings, Cronje even said he would try to get $50 000 more.
The offer, which required the South Africans to lose the one-day game in Mumbai by between 70 and 90 runs, came at the tail end of the tour.
Richardson admitted: "Nobody wanted to play. It was a benefit match which India had asked to upgrade to a full one-day international.
"The first meeting took place at the Taj Hotel. The players decided to 'sleep on it'. They returned for a second meeting. And a third.
"In the end, it was Andrew Hudson... who turned the tide. "He told the team: 'This could open a whole can of worms. We can't have anything to do with this offer."
Woolmer admitted he knew about the match-fixing attempt.
"I thought it was dismissed after one meeting. My stance was that anyone who was thinking about taking the money should be thrown out."
Former South African captain Clive Rice this week also backed up claims that Woolmer knew about match-fixing before the King Commission.
"I found it odd that he was never called as a witness by the King Commission."
Batohi, however, was aware of the allegations while she was preparing for the commission and did address them.
"I didn't not call him on a hunch. There were those media reports around at the time. And so I did interview him in Cape Town. But he flatly denied any knowledge and so there was no way I could call him as a witness," she said.