Only Sachin has status to spark cricket crisis

Only Sachin Tendulkar has the status in India to unwittingly spark an international cricket crisis, former players and fans said on Friday.

"Tendulkar is like a god in India. No one can imagine he could ever need to cheat," former India Test medium-pacer Atul Wassan told Reuters.

"If they had named anyone other than Tendulkar it may have become an issue, but certainly not one of this magnitude."

The International Cricket Council declared the third Test between India and South Africa, which started in Centurion on Friday as unofficial, after the Indians refused to play under match referee Mike Denness.

Denness, a former England captain, suspended Tendulkar for one match for ball-tampering during the team's second Test in South Africa. He also penalised five others, including captain Sourav Ganguly, for excessive appealing.

"If Denness had raised a finger to anyone other than Tendulkar, the situation may have just blown over," said Chetan Chauhan, a former Test opener.

"It's not just that Tendulkar is a great player, he is also a gentleman who has never been known to do wrong. He respects the traditions of the game and the fact that his integrity was being questioned angered fans, players, media and politicians alike."

Tendulkar was seen in television replays running his fingernail over the seam, which Denness said was an attempt to doctor its condition. The batsman said he was only cleaning grass and mud from the ball because of the damp conditions.

"I cannot believe Tendulkar would ever do such a thing. He's above all this, and anyway he's just a slow bowler. Only a paceman could get any real benefit from a doctored ball," said New Delhi cricket fan Dheeraj Rai.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had asked for Denness to be replaced or his decision reviewed by the ICC, but the sport's governing body turned down the request.

The South Africa board then dumped Denness following Indian threats to boycott the third Test, which started in Centurion on Friday. In turn, the ICC refused to recognise it as an official Test match.

ELDER STATESMAN
Tendulkar, 28, only the second Indian to have scored 7,000 Test runs and the only batsman in the world to have passed 10,000 runs in one-dayers, has built up his reputation to the point where anything less than a century is regarded as failure.

Having emerged as a cricket teenage wonder 13 years ago, he has now slipped into the role of an elder statesman, a motivator who is respected and looked up to by all his team mates.

"The personality of Tendulkar is what has made this a global issue," former Test batsman turned commentator, Sanjay Manjrekar, said from Bombay. "His being named is what caused the unparalleled reaction in India."

Manjrekar said he was not convinced that Tendulkar, a former teammate, was guilty.

"When tampering is done intentionally, it is always done in hiding. That wasn't the case. I thought he was just cleaning the seam and not picking it, but the match referee seemed to think the evidence was sufficient," he said.

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