Johannesburg: In yet another twist to the match-fixing row that led to a life ban on former South African captain Hansie Cronje in 2000, former South Africa pacer Henry Williams made a startling revelations on Saturday that he and Herschelle Gibbs had falsely testified against Hansie Cronje in front of the Kings Commission in the match-fixing saga over a decade ago in order to make a stronger case against the late Proteas captain.

Williams told the 'Sunday Times' that he had acted on the advice of his lawyers. "When we testified to our lawyers what the story really was, they came up with a threat that we could be prosecuted for doing something like this," Williams told the newspaper.

Williams admitted that he along with teammate Gibbs had lied at the King Commission of inquiry in 2000 about accepting an offer of USD 15,000 from Cronje to under-perform in an ODI against India in Nagpur.

Both Williams and Gibbs were fined and banned for six months, while Cronje, who admitted to match fixing, was suspended for life from any form of the sport by the ICC. Cronje later died in a plane crash in 2002. Williams said that he was pressurised into making his statement.