5 Controversies that rocked Indian cricket

3. Mike Denness vs India

The fifth and final day of the second Test between hosts South Africa and India in November of 2001 was expected to be a rather uneventful affair. The Test was meandering towards a draw after the Proteas had reduced India to 1-28 in their pursuit of an improbable target of 395. But, as they say, it was just a calm before the storm- a full-blooded storm- and a series of events that followed threatened to rip cricket apart on racial lines.

At the heart of the matter was match referee Mike Denness. Two incidents caught Denness’ eyes. The first one was regarding the excessive appealing by the Indians- orchestrated by Harbhajan Singh and accentuated to the hilt by close-in fielders like Virender Sehwag, Shiv Sundar Das, Deep Das Gupta- and not checked by Indian captain Sourav Ganguly. The second incident revolved around Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar- a cricketer with an unblemished reputation- and the claims of him tampering with the ball.

On the third day, Sachin had bowled four overs of medium pace before he started to swing the ball more than any other bowler. Denness asked for the footage from the host broadcasters, and after looking at the video, he was convinced that something unruly had happened. But, in the maelstrom, was forgotten the fact Tendulkar was guilty of not informing the umpires of cleaning the ball under Law 42.3 (b), rather than tampering with it.

Denness informed Team India on the fourth day that he will be banning Sachin Tendulkar [for ball tampering] and Sourav Ganguly for failing to control his team, for one match, suspended for a year. The likes of Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Deep Das Gupta, and Shiv Sundar Das were also handed a one-match ban and a further 75% reduction of match fee.

What happened next?

With six players from one team handed suspensions, all hell broke loose as Indian media accused Mike Denness of racial discrimination. Fans took to the streets to burn the effigies of Denness while the Indian parliament described the English match-referee as ‘racist’.

Battle lines were drawn in world cricket. While Australia, New Zealand, and England subsided with the ICC, BCCI-led by Jagmohan Dalmiya and South African cricket board- fearing that India would back out of the final Test-  were united in their demands of ICC removing Denness from the match-referee post in the following Test.

Frenetic discussions took place in the days leading up to the third Test. But, with ICC adamant on not removing Denness, both BCCI and South African board sacked the Englishman from officiating in the final Test. And, with ICC not acceding to the demands, the final Test was awarded an ‘unofficial’ status, which the home side won by an innings and 73 runs.