CENTURION, (Reuters):
WORLD CRICKET was braced for an unprecedented civil war yesterday as South Africa and India, in open defiance of the International Cricket Council, went ahead with their unofficial Test at Centurion.
Shaun Pollock's first ball to Shiv Sunder Das marked the official opening of hostilities as the teams took to the field for their third match, despite it being effectively declared null and void by the world governing body.
The crisis, sparked by India's refusal to play under ICC-appointed match referee Mike Denness after he handed out suspended bans to six of their players in the second Test, looked set to deepen further as the sport's traditional powers, England and Australia, declared their allegiance to the ICC.
In Australia as had occurred 24 hours earlier in India and South Africa the politicians joined their cricket officials in taking sides, with Prime Minister John Howard declaring: "The authority of the ICC should not be challenged in any way.
"It is imperative that administrators of all games have the tenacity, the courage and the authority to stamp out behaviour that brings any game into disrepute."
Lord MacLaurin, the head of the England and Wales Cricket Board said: "We stand full square behind the ICC...They control world cricket. We have anarchy at the moment."
MacLaurin hinted action could come within days as the ICC, which could call an extraordinary meeting of its executive council, attempts to defuse a situation in danger of poisoning relations and fragmenting the sport along racial lines.
The row over Denness mushroomed rapidly this week after he found Indian cricketing icon Sachin Tendulkar guilty of ball tampering in the second Test while also handing out suspended bans to a string of other Indian players, including skipper Saurav Ganguly, for over-aggressive appealing.
The head of India's cricket board, Jagmohan Dalmiya, first demanded a right of appeal. Rebuffed by the ICC, he upped the stakes by warning South Africa they would boycott the Centurion game unless Denness was sacked.
South Africa, under pressure from their own government, duly complied and the stand-off with the ICC began as it stripped the match of its official test status.
For the ICC, the position of their neutral officials - Denness is a former England Test captain - is sacrosanct.
For one billion passionate Indians, however, Tendulkar is a sporting god whose good name is to be revered as much as his talent as the world's leading batsman.
An accusation of tampering - Tendulkar, according to Denness, was betrayed by television pictures trying to pick at the ball's seam to make it spin and swerve for his bowlers - is akin to calling someone a cheat.
His fans responded by burning effigies of Denness in the streets.
The row is already being likened to cricket's great crises of the past.
In 1932-33, the Bodyline affair - which saw Australians accuse the English of trying to hit their batsman with dangerous short-pitched bowling - almost caused a breach of diplomatic relations.
In 1968-69, England called off their tour to South Africa after their white-skinned hosts refused to play against the England-qualified Cape coloured Basil D'Oliveira.
The Kerry Packer breakaway 'circus' in 1977, meanwhile, saw the Australian broadcaster poach some of the world's top players in an attempt to challenge traditional test cricket.
The Tendulkar-Denness furore may appear to be based on humbler beginnings - a one-match suspended ban and a small fine for an infraction which has been levelled at several great cricketers in the past - but there is a subtext.
That background was reflected in India in recent days, with several politicians and former cricketers linking Tendulkar's censure with racism.
Traditionally, cricket and its 10 Test-playing nations have been run from Lord's but India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - who cautiously sided with the ICC yesterday while keeping their options open - can rightly claim that the heart of the game is now firmly based in Asia.
The three Asian Test nations form the Asian Cricket Council, which is chaired by India's cricket chief Jagmohan Dalmiya. The uncompromising Dalmiya, despite having his enemies on home turf, has been seen as a champion for Asian interests ever since successfully forcing the ICC to switch the 1987 World Cup from England to India and Pakistan.
He also outmanoeuvred rivals from cricket's old powers by managing to get himself elected, against all the odds, as ICC president between 1997-2000.
If he were intent on taking the current issue to the limit - and were able to convince Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to support him in the power struggle - the very shape of the world game - and its governing body - could be changed for ever.
