CENTURION, South Africa (Reuters)
South Africa's third and final Test against India has been stripped of its status by the sport's world governing body in response to the sacking of match referee Mike Denness.

In a unprecedented move, the International Cricket Council (ICC) downgraded the game, due to start on Friday, after South Africa's United Cricket Board (UCBSA) bowed to appeals from India – as well as to pressure from the South African government in Pretoria – and barred Denness from officiating.

ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed, speaking in London, said: "Mike Denness was properly appointed by the ICC for this series and approved by both South Africa and India.

"No cricket board has the authority to remove Mr Denness from his position."

The South Africans sacked Denness in an attempt to stop the Indian touring side boycotting the game, after they complained about his handling of the drawn second Test.

Denness, a former England captain, found Sachin Tendulkar guilty of doctoring the ball after studying video evidence and also punished five other Indian players, including captain Sourav Ganguly, for excessive appealing.

The game will now go into the record books as no more than a first-class tour match.

An ICC statement said: "It would not be recognised by the ICC as a Test match. It would not be officiated by an ICC referee or umpire and neither the result nor statistics would be included in Test match records."

South African skipper Shaun Pollock – whose side have now effectively won the official series 1-0 – expressed sympathy for the ICC stand, adding: "It's going to be a game of cricket that we will have to play. It's disappointing, but we've got to do something for the spectators."

The affair, meanwhile, which has escalated rapidly from molehill to mountain over the past two days, looks set to poison relations for some time to come.

There will be plenty of opportunity for the ill-feeling to fester, with the ICC's executive board not due to meet again until March.

"I'm sure this whole saga will be hotly debated at the next meeting," Speed said, although he confirmed that an emergency executive board meeting could be called.

Speed's relationship with Jagmohan Dalmiya, head of the Indian cricket board and the former head of the ICC, has taken a battering.

When Speed announced the downgrading of the game, Dalmiya rubbished his comments by arguing only the ICC executive committee could make such a decision.

"We [the Indian and South African cricket boards] feel that it qualifies as an official Test match," he had said.

Speed responded: "I disagree with him. I believe I can [do it] and I have done it, with the authority of the president of the ICC, whom I spoke to today."

Speed said he felt "acute disappointment" over the affair but added: "Where there are strong emotions, things can get out of hand."

Things, indeed, "got out of hand" rapidly.

If Tendulkar's suspended one-match ban on Tuesday – he was shown on television apparently scratching the seam with his fingernail, although India argued he had not damaged the ball and was therefore not guilty of tampering – sparked the situation, the South Africans' surprise response quickly transformed it into full-blown crisis.

Instructed by Pretoria to protect the country's good relations with India at all costs, the United Cricket Board turned on Denness in what was later described as a "pragmatic way of addressing an issue".

A statement from UCB chief executive Gerald Majola said that he had told Speed he had "no alternative" after Dalmiya had threatened that India would not take the field with Denness in position.

The UCB argued that South African cricket and its public could "not afford the cancellation of this Test match". It did not hide the fact, however, that the decision was fundamentally political.

"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," it said.

Balfour later conceded that "this in no way should be viewed as an attempt to discredit the integrity of Mr Denness."

A disappointed Denness was left to confirm: "I certainly won't be going to the ground tomorrow (Friday)." India's passion for the game – and its historical suspicions of the London-based ICC – also clearly played their part in the affair mushrooming out of control. Widely regarded as the best batsman in the world, Tendulkar has an unblemished record and is revered by India's fans as a cricketing icon.

That reverence was reflected in street protests for a second day running. In Calcutta, protestors paraded a straw effigy of Denness astride a mule before burning it.

Politicians in India's lower house of parliament, meanwhile, called for financial pressure to be exerted on the ICC by suspending broadcasts of overseas matches.

Former Test cricketer Kirti Azad, who belongs to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said: "The situation in South Africa is very, very serious. It is unjust and partial and it seems there is a racist element."

A spokesman for India's ruling BJP had said on Wednesday that the team should pull out if it were proved that the six penalties imposed by Denness – four of which, according to the ICC, were suggested to the referee by the match umpires – stemmed from racial discrimination.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd