Mike Denness - issues resolved Photo CricInfo

Measures to revise the role of Test match referees following last November's notorious "Mike Denness affair" have been agreed by the executive board of the International Cricket Council at its meeting in Cape Town. But the ICC has stuck by its original ruling that the third match of the series between South Africa and India will not have Test status. The game went ahead without ICC recognition after Denness was "sacked" by South Africa and India for disciplining six Indian players, including Sachin Tendulkar, at Port Elizabeth. South Africa will continue to be regarded as 1-0 winners of the series.

In a statement released after protracted negotiations at the Cape Town meeting, the ICC announced that in future the onus would be on umpires to lay disciplinary charges, which will then be the subject of a hearing by referees. To ensure that there is no repeat of November's farcical press conference, at which Denness appeared but was unable to account for himself, referees will now be allowed to explain their decisions to the media.

The ICC has also agreed to set up a "Disputes Resolution Committee" which will review the detailed procedures followed by Denness in disciplining the Indian players at Port Elizabeth. The committee will comprise its chairman, Michael Beloff QC, a leading English lawyer, and ICC Directors Peter Chingoka (Zimbabwe), Bob Merriman (Australia) and Wes Hall (West Indies). Michael Beloff is also to succeed Lord Hugh Griffiths as Chairman of the ICC's Code of Conduct Commission.

"This matter has been a major issue for the ICC and its members over the past five months. It is a significant achievement that a solution has been reached by all directors, that is both business like and practical," said the ICC president, Malcolm Gray.

Other measures agreed in Cape Town include a new system of Code of Conduct disciplinary penalties. There will be four levels of code breaches, with recommended minimum and maximum penalties. A Level 1 breach for dissent could lead to anything from a reprimand to a 50% match fee fine. Level 4 Code breaches, which would include threats and violence, would incur a minimum of a five Test or 10 ODI ban. In the most extreme cases a life ban could be applied.

"This new disciplinary Code will be an important tool for the recently convened panels of ICC umpires and referees to work with," said the ICC's chief executive, Malcolm Speed. "There has been concern with declining standards of on-field behaviour and there has been inconsistency in the way it has been dealt with in the past.

"This new system establishes very clear penalties for misbehaviour, so there can be no misinterpretation by either the players or officials concerned," he added.

The new code will be discussed at the ICC Cricket Committee-Playing meeting, which convenes tomorrow. It is scheduled to be introduced in April. As revealed by CricInfo yesterday, confirmation that international cricket has been free of corruption for the past 12 months was provided by Lord Condon, director of the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit.

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