The Hindu : India ready to forget Mike Denness episode

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 22, 2003

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Sport - Cricket

India ready to forget Mike Denness episode

London June 21. India has agreed to `forget' the unpleasant Mike Denness episode for ``humanitarian reasons,'' since the match-referee, whose severe punishments to six Indian players two years ago had brought world cricket on the verge of a split, had recently undergone a heart surgery, an ICC spokesman claimed on Saturday.

At a meeting with the Indian cricket board president Jagmohan Dalmiya, new ICC president Ehsan Mani suggested that the matter be best forgotten since Denness has had a heart surgery.

Dalmiya immediately agreed to the suggestion, the spokesman said.

Denness, a former England captain, had created a storm by holding Sachin Tendulkar guilty of ball-tampering and punishing five other Indian cricketers, including captain Sourav Ganguly, for excessive appealing during India's tour of South Africa in 2001.

The worst affected was Virender Sehwag, who was given a one-Test suspension and had to miss out on the first Test of the home series against England later that year.

Meanwhile, ICC has started looking for an amicable settlement of the contracts dispute with India to avoid a legal recourse, the daily Times reported.

``Legal solution are the last resort,'' Mani was quoted as saying by the newspaper. ``If all else fails we can go to arbitration, but I hope we can sort out the problem.

``India has to have contracts with its players in future, like the other nine Test countries. They are the biggest cricket country in the world, with the greatest potential in all aspects,'' Mani said.

PTI

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