South Africa, India dish out royal snub to ICC

Cocking a snook at the International Cricket Council, Board of Control for Cricket in India and the United Cricket Board of South Africa on Thursday decided to go ahead with the third Test match starting on Friday at Johannesburg without the ICC appointed match referee Mike Denness officiating it.

The UCBSA said South African Denis Lindsay, who serves on the ICC Match Referees Panel, has agreed to be available to stand in as Match Referee, and the BCCI has agreed to him replacing Denness.

Indian team manager M K Bhargava, however, told the STAR News channel that in keeping with the decisions of Denness, Virendra Sehwag would be stood down from the third Test.

He said the decision to replace the match referee had lifted a big burden off the shoulders of the Indian players, who were unclear till that point whether the match would take place as scheduled.

The move by both the boards is certain to turn the third Test unofficial, especially in light of the ICC decision not to replace Mike Denness, and Denness' refusal to voluntarily step down.

A UCB statement said, "Although the crisis has not been of our making, we have received reports of protests at South African embassies in India and our country has been caught up in this issue. The South African government, through Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour, has instructed the UCBSA to take whatever action is necessary to ensure that the Test match goes ahead."

The UCB also said that chief executive Gerald Majola had telephoned ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed 'to inform him that the UCBSA had no alternative but to ask Mr Denness to recuse himself and, facing his refusal to do so, had indicated that the UCBSA was unable to allow him access to the Match Referee's position at the ground for the Test Match'.

Full UCBSA statement

The Mike Dennes controversy

India's tour of South Africa: Complete coverage