South African police investigated an alleged death threat against West Indian umpire Steve Bucknor [Images] and found there was no substance to the threat.

United Cricket Board of South Africa media manager Gerald de Kock said on Sunday: "The matter was investigated at a very high level and no substance to the threats was found."

Bucknor, criticised by both the media and players for his performance in the fourth and fifth Tests between South Africa and England [Images], said he and co-umpire Aleem Dar had received death threats on the final day of the fifth test at Centurion Park.

The threats were allegedly made in a phone call to the chief executive's office at the ground.

"I was told that the words the caller used were 'We are going to get rid of Aleem Dar and Steve Bucknor, we are going to shoot them'," Bucknor told the Sunday Telegraph in England.

"You get lots of abuse as an umpire, and also I grew up in a part of Jamaica where threats are a daily occurrence, and I refereed football matches in Jamaica where you get threatened all the time. But it was never this extreme."

Bucknor was happy for police protection to be dropped two days after the Centurion Test and officiated in the first one-day international at the Wanderers on Sunday without any extra security.

Bucknor will umpire three more of the games in the seven-match series. Dar has flown home to Pakistan.