Denness explains action against Tendulkar

Under attack for his harsh action against Sachin Tendulkar and five other Indian cricketers, ICC match referee Mike Denness, late Tuesday evening, came out with a laboured explanation, saying that by not informing the umpires while cleaning the ball the master batsman had indeed breached the Code of Conduct and thus brought the game into disrepute.

Denness, who had refused to speak about his action, at a press conference in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday morning, on the plea that ICC rules do not permit him to do so, issued a two-page statement through the United Cricket Board of South Africa.

However, he chose to only explain his action against Tendulkar while keeping mum on the even more severe punishment meted out to Virender Sehwag, who has been banned for one match, skipper Sourav Ganguly, wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta, Harbhajan Singh and Shiv Sunder Das.

Denness said the decision to call for the video footage of Tendulkar's bowling and summon the player for a hearing was taken by himself.

"There was no report submitted by the on-field umpires or anyone else to the match referee."

"In making his decision, the match referee took into account everything Mr Tendulkar had said during the hearing. Nevertheless, as a player and a highly respected player, Mr Tendulkar had breached the Code of Conduct No 2 and by his actions has brought the game into disrepute," the statement said.

Denness said after going through the video footage, he summoned Tendulkar alongwith Ganguly and team manager M K Bhargava. All those present at the meeting again watched the video footage of the incident.

Following the hearing, the match referee deliberated long and hard over the decision he should come to.

"It was quite clear to the match-referee that Mr Tendulkar was acting on the match ball by himself without the field umpires' supervision (as required) under Law 42.3 (a) (ii) and 42.3 (b)," the statment added.

Also read:
Mike Denness, put up or shut up!

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Mail Cricket Editor