Centurion Test, Day 1, Lunch
Friday, November 23, 2001

This was one of the most boring sessions of the series with not-so-attractive-cricket dished out by the Indians in front of a near-empty ground. I am really aggrieved that people who should have acted more responsibly have killed a series, just when it was developing into such an exciting contest. The tremendous fightback by the team has come to nought because India have now lost the opportunity to square the series. The Indians have been the biggest losers in the final analysis.

When you look back, there were two who were in the wrong: match referee Mike Denness with his judgment over what transpired on the field, and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) with its exaggerated reaction to Denness's judgement. I feel their actions will have serious repercussions and cost the game dearly.

I cannot find too much fault with International Cricket Council (ICC) in the entire episode. They have gone about their business like a responsible body should and, once they found their authority had been undermined by the removal of Denness, ICC had no choice but to strip the match of official Test status.

The ICC is the only body empowered to decide whether a Test is official or unofficial and I find it very immature on the part of Jagmohan Dalmiya to tell the Indian team to treat the match as an official Test.

Dalmiya has turned the entire issue into a complete farce and his words are not going to give the match Test status. If, after all this, the ICC does give the match belated recognition, it would be the perfect finale to a series of bizarre events.

One could see the effect of the ICC announcement on the players. The South Africans are not taking the match as seriously as they would have if they had been playing a Test. They are just treating this as a warm-up game for the Australian tour ahead.

Once it was known that the match was unofficial, the Indian team management simply went berserk. Venkatesh Prasad came in out of the blue, Virender Sehwag was excluded while Sourav Ganguly is sitting it out, nursing a spasm. Ganguly has a record of opting out of matches and giving excuses. It just gives me the feeling that he would not have missed the match if it was official.

India have succeeded in getting rid of Denness as match referee, but in the process they have paid a very heavy price: losing the series. This is one of the major problems that plague our country - mass sentiments are given too much importance by our political leaders. The huge outcry resulted in the BCCI chief pampering the players.

Dalmiya should have been a little reasonable and realistic about the whole thing and told them to carry on with the Test and try to square the series, while assuring them that he would pursue the matter at the highest level after the series is over. He should have told them to leave the administrative matters to him and the BCCI. That would have been a perfect response to the Indian team.

I think Dalmiya has made a big mistake and the ICC bosses have acted as well as they could have – considering they were being held to ransom.

Sanjay Manjrekar, mainstay of the Indian batting in the late '80s and early '90s, was talking to H Natarajan.

More Sanjay Manjrekar
A boost to India's morale
Controversy has inspired the batsmen

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd