NEW DELHI (Reuters)
Indian cricket fans danced in the streets and national newspapers exulted on Friday over South Africa and India's decision to dump match referee Mike Denness from their third Test in defiance of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

The fans said they were celebrating "victory" while front-page banner headlines in newspapers congratulated the Indian and South African cricket boards for taking a stand against the ICC.

Former England captain Denness had enraged the country by slapping a suspended one-match ban on top Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar for ball-tampering and penalising five others including captain Sourav Ganguly for appealing excessively.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had asked for Denness to be replaced for the third Test, or for his decision be reviewed by the ICC, but the sport's governing body rejected this request on Wednesday.

The South African cricket board, under pressure from Pretoria, then barred Denness from officiating at the game starting on Friday following Indian threats that they could boycott the Centurion match.

Passionate cricket supporters in Calcutta paraded with garlanded portraits of Tendulkar and hometown hero Ganguly, shouting slogans against the ICC near Ganguly's house.

"Down with ICC," they screamed, showing V-signs for victory. "Stop ICC from being a racist organisation", and "Honesty rules, not you Mr Speed" read some of the banners they carried. Malcolm Speed is the ICC's chief executive.

"Getting Mike Denness removed is a victory for Indian cricket," Arya Ghosh, an excited Indian cricket fan, told Reuters. "The ICC is also showing itself to be a racist organisation, like Denness."

National daily Hindustan Times argued - under the headline "India, South Africa defy ICC, dump Denness" - that world cricket could be split wide open by the controversy.

"Game's on, nothing official about it," said The Indian Express, as Indian newspapers splashed the story on their front pages, accompanied by pictures of Indian protest rallies at which Denness's effigy was burnt.

The papers said the South African board's decision to replace Denness was meant to maintain cordial ties with India.

Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar, meanwhile, called on the ICC to rush through its plan to set up an elite panel of match referees to avoid future controversy.

"What this whole episode does underscore is the urgency to have the elite panel of umpires and match referees in place well before the targeted date of April 1, 2002," Gavaskar wrote in the Hindustan Times.

"The cricketing world simply cannot afford to lurch from one controversy to another and an elite panel which has the confidence of the players will ensure that episodes like this will be very rare."

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