CALCUTTA (Reuters)
Indian cricket board president Jagmohan Dalmiya says any decision on the status of the India-South Africa third Test can only be made by a majority decision of the executive board of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Dalmiya was reacting on Thursday to ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed's announcement in London that the Centurion game, due to start on Friday, would not be recognised if match referee Mike Denness was banned from officiating.

"Whether it is official or unofficial is governed by certain parameters," Dalmiya told Reuters. "This can be decided only by the majority of the ICC's executive board."

In an unprecedented move earlier on Thursday, South African cricket officials, under pressure from their own government to placate India, had banned Denness from the third Test to prevent a boycott by the touring side.

Denness, a former England captain, had enraged India by finding Sachin Tendulkar guilty of doctoring the ball in the drawn second Test at Port Elizabeth. He also punished five other Indian players, including captain Saurav Ganguly.

"The third match will commence as scheduled tomorrow [Friday]," Dalmiya, the previous head of the ICC before he stood down last year, told a news conference earlier.

Following the South African decision to remove Denness, the Indian board has accepted the decisions taken by him in the second Test, Dalmiya said.

Asked whether the Centurion game would still carry the official status, Dalmiya said South Africa's Denis Lindsay, who has been named by the two boards to oversee the game, was also on the ICC panel.

He said the appointment of match referees depended on the mutual consent of the national boards involved.

"We [Indian and South African cricket boards] feel that it qualifies to be an official Test match," he said. "The ICC did not understand the seriousness of the situation. The decisions were extraordinarily harsh. We needed some accommodation."

Dalmiya said the Indian board did not have any reason to get back to the ICC. He added that the issue would be "discussed and decided" at the ICC's executive board meeting, scheduled to be held in Colombo in March next year.

He said if the ICC reacted by pulling out umpires nominated for the Test, South African officials Rudi Koertzen - already the home umpire - and Dave Orchard would stand.

South Africa lead the three-match series 1-0.

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