British papers blame India-SA
tie-up for cricket "anarchy"

British newspapers on Friday blamed a political tie-up between India and South Africa for what they saw as the "anarchy" facing cricket.

The United Cricket Board of South Africa had acted "apparently under pressure from the Pretoria government," The Times reported.

The Guardian carried a story blaming South African President Thabo Mbeki for taking that decision.

At the bottom, this was also being seen as a race issue in England. The suggestion was that non-white governments in India and South Africa had come together against white dominance of the world of cricket.

The English media cited rules to support the decision of the International Cricket Council to declare the match unofficial.

There was little about the refereeing excesses of Mike Denness, who penalised more than half the Indian team, including captain Sourav Ganguly and ace batsman Sachin Tendulkar.

An exception was a suggestion in The Times that Mike Denness had acted unprofessionally.

Christopher Martin-Jenkins, perhaps the most widely respected cricket writer in the British media today, wrote in The Times : "Denness, 60, was never the most flexible of characters during his 19 Tests as England captain and, from a distance, it seems that he overreacted grossly when he found the universally respected Sachin Tendulkar guilty of picking the seam of the ball in Port Elizabeth."

He said Tendulkar's only misdemeanour was "he did not inform the umpires before cleaning the seam with his thumbnail, an age-old habit among bowlers of all nationalities."

He pointed out match referees had in the past had not acted even when given footage of Waqar Younus gouging the ball.

But for much of the British media, the matter had gone far beyond the unfairness of Denness or even cricket itself.

Michael Henderson wrote in The Daily Telegraph : "In a quite disgraceful - and unprecedented - display of unwarranted brotherhood, the United Cricket Board of South Africa have conspired to undermine the authority of the game's governing body, the International Cricket Council, and the consequences of their treachery cannot be underestimated."

The Telegraph writer suggested how colour had come into all this. "By granting (BCCI president Jagmohan) Dalmiya's unpardonable request for Mike Denness, the ICC match referee, to be stood down from the third and final Test between South Africa and India, which starts today in Centurion, the South Africans have revealed the colours that suit them best.

"Instead of supporting Denness - a referee who has sought to act in the best interests of the game - they have sided with a partial witness and opted to get a Test match going, for political and financial reasons, with an approved stooge in place."

The article blamed South African sports minister Ngconde Balfour, who instructed the UCBSA to press ahead with the Test after Denness had refused to stand down.

"They believe what they want to, these people," the article said.

"What they don't, they just shovel under the carpet and hope that nobody notices."

And after accusing Indian media of getting hysterical, the author concluded: "As for Dalmiya... just who does he think he is?"

The Mike Denness controversy

Indo-Asian News Service

India's tour of South Africa : Complete coverage

--Indo-Asian News Service

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