South African govt attacks ICC, says ties with India important

The South African Government on Thursday attacked the International Cricket Council for refusing to replace Mike Denness as the match-referee for the third Test against India saying 'It does not serve the best interests of cricket'.

"Numerous efforts have already been made by both South Africa and India to persuade the ICC to reconsider its stance on the matter. We view your reluctance to do so in a rather serious light and believe that it does not serve the best interest of cricket," South African Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour said in a letter to ICC.

Strongly defending the South African Cricket Board's decision to go alongwith India in demanding the sacking of Denness, Balfour said, this was done to maintain 'very strong sporting and political relations' with India and to avoid tension in the ties between the two countries.

"The current position has potential to cause tremendous tension between our two countries and as Government, we support the UCBSA in all its efforts to salvage the match and its attempts to persuade the ICC to replace the designated referee," Balfour said.

"We respectfully differ with your judgement on this matter and even at this eleventh hour we urge you to accede to the request on the replacement of the match referee. "We do not believe that this would set a precedent and trust that this matter will be resolved amicably," he said in the letter.

The minister said South Africa found itself in an unenviable position and that it was caught in the middle of differences between the ICC and the Indian Cricket Board.

"We do not want to discuss the merit of the decisions of the referee, but we want to appeal to you to give the UCBSA special permission to replace the designated match referee. This in no way should be viewed as an attempt to discredit the integrity of Mr Denness, but should rather be seen as a pragmatic way of addressing an issue that is not of the making of the South African cricket authorities," he said.

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Mike Denness controversy

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