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 today.
At a meeting with 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.

Furious with the harsh punishments -- especially since excessive appealing by South African cricketers during the same series was not taken note of -- the Indian board had demanded that Denness be removed as match-referee and the decisions overturned.

The resultant furore had threatened to split world cricket on racial lines with nearly all the national boards aligning with one side or the other.

Bureau Report