CENTURION (South Africa), Nov 22: South African officials have banned the ICC-appointed match referee, Mike Denness, from the third Test against India to prevent an Indian boycott of the match.

Denness, a former England captain, enraged India by finding Sachin Tendulkar guilty of doctoring the ball in the drawn second test in Port Elizabeth. Denness also sanctioned five other Indian players, including captain Saurav Ganguly.

The ICC, world cricket’s ruling body, rejected a request by India Wednesday to have Denness replaced as match referee for the Test starting Friday.

But, in an unprecedented decision, the United Cricket Board - under pressure from the Pretoria government - said on Thursday Denness would be banned from taking up his position after refusing a UCB request for him to voluntarily stand down.

Both teams agreed to the unofficial appointment of former South Africa wicket keeper batsman Denis Lindsay, a member of the ICC match referees panel, for the Third test.

A statement from UCB chief executive Gerald Majola said that he “...had telephoned ICC chief executive, Malcolm Speed, to inform him that the UCBSA had no alternative but to ask Mr Denness to excuse 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.”

“We were informed this morning by the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya, that the Indian team will not take the field if Mike Denness is acting as match referee,” Majola said Thursday.

But the ICC said that as far as they were concerned, Denness remained the match referee.

Mark Harrison, the ICC’s communications manager, told Reuters: “Our position is unchanged from last night when we confirmed Mike’s appointment for the Test.

“We have no specific comment on what has happened in South Africa today and shall wait to hear the Indian response later in the day. We will then make another statement on the matter,” he said, minutes after talking to Speed.

The UCB statement explained that South African cricket and its public could “...not afford the cancellation of this Test match. 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.”

Denness was approached by a UCB member to stand down in the best interests of cricket but the statement said that he “indicated that he was a properly appointed ICC match referee who was in South Africa to act as such and he could not step down from that position”.—Reuters