Mike Denness was
justified, says Dungarpur

Former Board of Control for Cricket in India president Raj Singh Dungarpur on Thursday struck a dissenting note saying match-referee Mike Denness was justified in punishing the Indian players, and rubbished the BCCI's threat to pull out of the ongoing series in South Africa.

Dungarpur said though he believes Sachin Tendulkar would never indulge in ball-tampering, Denness was right in taking action since the master batsman had not sought the permission of the ground umpires before cleaning the ball.

"I am an ardent admirer of Tendulkar and I know that he always plays straight and would not indulge in ball tampering, but I feel Denness went by what the video clippings showed," Dungarpur said.

"The incident was unfortunate and probably Tendulkar was absent-minded while trying to clean the ball," Dungarpur said.

He also justified the penalties on other players including the one-match ban on Virender Sehwag.

"Virendra Shewag, Shiv Sunder Das and Deep Dasgupta were appealing too much from close to the wicket and the umpires might have had a word with Denness (about it). Sourav Ganguly was pulled up as he did not try to speak to his players on the ground," he said.

"I think we are blaming Denness too much," he added.

Lashing out at BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya's stand on the issue, Dungarpur said: "What business has Dalmiya to ask the team to pull out from the ongoing series. There is no constitution that gives any right to any one man to go to such an extent.

"I am really disappointed with the way Dalmiya has handled the whole thing arrogantly,

"What was surprising was Dalmiya, who is a seasoned campaigner, asking the International Cricket Council for Denness's head or revocation for Shewag's suspension. Both demands looked pretty silly to me."

The Mike Denness controversy

Mail Cricket Editor