Match referee Mike Denness, a former England captain, found six India players guilty of various offences during the second test match of India's 2001 tour of South Africa, played between 16 and 20 November 2001 at St George's Park, Port Elizabeth. The severity of Denness's punishment to an unprecedented six players was viewed by the India media as motivated by racism, outraged the general public and remains controversial to this day. [1] [2]
In the laws of cricket, tampering with the ball is a serious offence, and considered to be cheating. Tendulkar was caught on camera running his nail around the seam of the ball multiple times which was deemed by Denness as falling under rules against cleaning the ball without the umpires permission, but was widely reported as being considered ball tampering. The other incidents were examples of players excessively appealing, and in the case of Sehwag, charging toward the Umpire at the Bowler's end after knowingly claiming a dropped catch. As there were multiple incidents involving multiple players, team captain Sourav Ganguly was also cited for failing to control his team's behaviour.
While there had been other incidents of South African players appealing in a similar manner, as these had not been reported to Denness by the on-field umpires, he was unable to intervene.
In addition to forfeiture of a certain percentage of their match fees, the following suspensions were handed to the Indian players:
Denness was heavily criticised for failing to explain his actions at the press conference announcing the punishments, which was caused by the ICC regulations preventing Denness from doing anything more than explaining the charges. Denness himself had not wished to hold the press conference and had been ordered to by the ICC. [3]
Indian journalists hounded Denness regarding an alleged failure to fine Shaun Pollock for what Indian reporters described as "similar" incidents of excessive appealing. [4] The incident infuriated the Indian cricket establishment, precipitating an international cricketing, [5] political [6] and administrative [7] crisis. In response to Denness's inability to explain his actions at the press conference, former Indian cricketer Ravi Shastri, who was then working as a commentator, stated "If Mike Denness cannot answer questions, why is he here? We know what he looks like." [8]
There was a huge outrage in India where protestors took to the streets and burnt effigies of Denness. The matter was raised in the Indian parliament, the popular press termed Denness a racist, and the ICC was accused of discriminating against the emerging Third World. [9]
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) threatened to call off its tour of South Africa unless Denness was replaced as match referee for the third Test, scheduled for 23–27 November at SuperSport Park, Centurion. The International Cricket Council (ICC) supported Denness [10] but the South African board sided with the BCCI's position [11] and the two teams played an "unofficial" Test instead. Denness, who was not even allowed to enter the stadium, was replaced as match referee by the South African Denis Lindsay. [12] Consequently, the ICC declared the match to be "unofficial" and instead classified it as a "friendly five-day match"; [13] the Test series was thus limited to the two matches already completed, with South Africa winning 1–0.
The ICC upheld the ban on Sehwag for the subsequent Test, but overturned the bans on Tendulkar and Ganguly. [14] The subsequent England tour to India was placed in jeopardy when India picked Sehwag in the Test squad. [15] Subsequent to this development, the ICC issued a warning that any Test match with Sehwag in the Indian team would not be considered an official Test until Sehwag served his ban. [16] After negotiations with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the ICC, and in the general interest of cricket, Sehwag was dropped from the team for the first Test against England. [17]
Mike Denness served as match referee in only two more Tests and three more One Day Internationals. These were all in the series between Pakistan and the West Indies in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, during January and February 2002. He retired as a match referee for health reasons, and died in 2013 from cancer.
An ICC Disputes Resolution Committee hearing headed by Michael Beloff QC, the then Chairman of the ICC Code of Conduct Commission, was scheduled to hear the case on 6–7 June 2002. But the hearing was postponed a week before its scheduled date due to the ill-health and surgery plans of Denness. [18]
The Resolution Committee never met to decide on the merits of the cases of Denness and the Indian team as the BCCI decided to forgo the case in view of Denness' heart surgery. [19]
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is an Indian former international cricketer who captained the Indian national team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. Hailed as the world's most prolific batsman of all time, he is the all-time highest run-scorer in both ODI and Test cricket with more than 18,000 runs and 15,000 runs, respectively. He also holds the record for receiving the most player of the match awards in international cricket. Tendulkar was a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha by presidential nomination from 2012 to 2018.
Kapil Dev Nikhanj is an Indian former cricketer. He is regarded as one of the greatest all-rounders in the history of cricket, he was a fast-medium bowler and a hard-hitting middle-order batsman. Dev is the only player in the history of cricket to have taken more than 400 wickets and scored more than 5,000 runs in Test.
The India men's national cricket team represents India in men's international cricket. It is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), and is a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test, One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) status. India are the current Twenty20 World Champions.
Harbhajan Singh, also known by his nickname Bhajji, is a former Indian cricketer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest off-spin bowlers of all time. He later became a politician, serving as a Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha. He is also a film actor, a television celebrity and a cricket commentator.
Syed Inzamam-ul-Haq SI, also known as Inzi, is a former Pakistan cricketer and captain of Pakistan national cricket team. He is regarded as one of the great players Pakistan has produced and one of the best middle-order batsmen of all time. He was the former chief selector of the Pakistan cricket team before resigning in 2023. He was a part of the Pakistani squad which won the 1992 Cricket World Cup.
Michael Henry Denness was a Scottish cricketer who played for England, Scotland, Kent and Essex.
The Inderjit Singh Bindra Stadium is a cricket ground located in Mohali, Punjab, India. It is popularly referred to as the Mohali Stadium. The stadium was built by Geetanshu Kalra is home to the Punjab team. The construction of the stadium took around ₹ 250 million and 3 years to complete. The stadium has an official capacity of 26,950 spectators. The stadium was designed by Ar. Arun Loomba and Associates, and constructed by R.S. Construction Company based in Chandigarh. Inderjit Singh Bindra stadium is home of Punjab cricket team and Punjab Kings. The stadium is named after former BCCI president & former PCA president Inderjit Singh Bindra.
Jagmohan Dalmiya was an Indian cricket administrator and businessman from the city of Kolkata. He was the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India as well as the Cricket Association of Bengal. He had also served as the President of the International Cricket Council.
Deep Dasgupta is a former Indian cricketer who played in eight Test matches and five One Day Internationals between 2001 and 2006 as the national wicketkeeper and was later replaced by Ajay Ratra. He is now a Hindi and English commentator.
The 2006 ICC Champions Trophy was a One Day International cricket tournament held in India from 7 October to 5 November 2006. It was the fifth edition of the ICC Champions Trophy. The tournament venue was not confirmed until mid-2005 when the Indian government agreed that tournament revenues would be free from tax. Australia won the tournament, their first Champions Trophy victory. They were the only team to get one loss in the tournament, as all other teams lost at least two matches. West Indies, their final opponents, beat Australia in the group stage but were bowled out for 138 in the final and lost by eight wickets on the Duckworth–Lewis method. West Indies opening batsman Chris Gayle was named Player of the Tournament.
In the sport of cricket, ball tampering is an action in which a fielder illegally alters the condition of the ball. The primary motivation of ball tampering is to interfere with the aerodynamics of the ball to aid swing bowling.
The Chappell–Ganguly controversy was caused by a series of events in late 2005 and early 2006 which involved highly publicised infighting in the Indian cricket team between the then newly appointed coach Greg Chappell and captain Sourav Ganguly. The dispute resulted in the removal of Ganguly as captain and his replacement by vice-captain Rahul Dravid in November 2005, with Ganguly being dropped from the ODI team. Ganguly was also dropped from the Test team at the end of January 2006. The dispute stirred up strong emotions in India, ranging from fiery street protests in Ganguly's home town of Kolkata and his home state of West Bengal, to speeches in the Parliament of India. Eventually Ganguly was recalled to the team in both forms of cricket in late 2006 after his replacements lost form, and was selected as a part of the Indian team for the 2007 Cricket World Cup.
The Indian cricket team began a tour of Australia in December 2007, playing the 4 match Test series for the Border Gavaskar Trophy, followed by a single Twenty20 match on 1 February 2008. They also participated in the Commonwealth Bank tri-series against Australia and Sri Lanka from 3 February to 4 March.
The Second Test in the Indian cricket team's tour of Australia for the 2007–08 summer was a Test cricket match played over five days at the Sydney Cricket Ground from 2 to 6 January 2008. Australia won the match by 122 runs with minutes to spare at the end of the fifth day.
Virender Sehwag is a former Indian cricketer who represented India from 1999 to 2013. Widely regarded as one of the most destructive openers and one of the greatest batsmen of his era, he played for Delhi Capitals in IPL and Delhi and Haryana in Indian domestic cricket. He played his first One Day International in 1999 and joined the Indian Test side in 2001. In April 2009, Sehwag became the first Indian to be honoured as the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World for his performance in 2008, subsequently becoming the first player of any nationality to retain the award for 2009. He worked as stand-in captain occasionally during absence of main captain of India, also worked as Vice-Captain for Indian squad. He is former captain of Delhi Daredevils and Delhi Ranji Team. During his time with India, Sehwag was a member of the team that was one of the joint winners of the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, the winners of the 2007 T20 World Cup, and the winners of the 2011 Cricket World Cup. During the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, Sehwag was the highest run scorer with 271 runs. In 2023, he was inducted into ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
The 2011 Cricket World Cup Final was the final match of the 2011 Men's Cricket World Cup, the 10th edition of ICC's championship of One Day International (ODI) cricket. The match was played between India and Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Saturday 2 April 2011. It was the first time that two Asian teams had faced each other in an ODI World Cup final. India won the match by six wickets—its second World Cup win after the 1983 tournament—and became the third team to have won the title more than once, after Australia and the West Indies. India became the first country to win the Cricket World Cup in their own country.
The 2003 Cricket World Cup Final was a One Day International (ODI) match played on 23 March 2003 at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. It marked the culmination of the 2003 Cricket World Cup, the eighth edition of the tournament. It was the first time these two teams had met at this stage of a World Cup. For defending champions Australia it was their fifth World Cup final, while for India it was the second after their 1983 victory. Australia won the match by 125 runs to claim the title for the third time.
The Australia national cricket team toured India in the 2004–05 season and played a four-match Test series, during October and November 2004, against India, Australia winning the series 2–1 with one match drawn, their first series win on Indian soil since their 1969-70 tour. The future Australian Test captain, Michael Clarke, made his Test debut in the first match, scoring 151 in the first innings. In the fourth match of the series, Clarke took 6 wickets for 9 runs in the second innings.
The England national cricket team toured India in 2001–02, playing a three-match Test series and six-match ODI series versus India.