Tendulkar questioned by match-referee

The beleaguered Indian cricket team was on Monday in the midst of a major controversy with its top batsman Sachin Tendulkar being questioned for suspicion of ball tampering and four other players being summoned by the match-referee for 'excessive appealing'.

The match-referee, England's Mike Denness, called Tendulkar on Monday morning after seeing footage of the three overs of medium-fast bowling by the Indian, prior to lunch on the third day of the second Test on Sunday. He was examining whether the master batsman had tampered with the ball.

After the meeting, it was informally stated that Tendulkar had been cleared but Denness said later that he would issue a formal statement in the evening after consulting the International Cricket Council in London.

Meanwhile, Denness summoned Shiv Sunder Das, Deep Dasgupta, Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag for a closed- door meeting at which he reportedly cautioned them against excessive appealing.

Tendulkar found strong support from his skipper Sourav Ganguly, batting legend Sunil Gavaskar and others who said that it was unthinkable that he would indulge in ball tampering.

Ganguly said Tendulkar had a blemishless record and, for somebody who has played as long as the Mumbai maestro has, it was 'unthinkable' he could have been tampering with the ball.

Ganguly said Tendulkar had only been trying to remove the mud and dirt from the ball, an argument supported by former skipper Sunil Gavaskar. Gavaskar said he couldn't imagine Tendulkar "being accused of something as serious as ball tampering".

Going strictly by the law, Tendulkar may be said to have erred in not removing the dirt in the presence of umpires as required by the rules of the game. Law 42.3 of cricket states that a fielder could remove mud from the ball under the supervision of the umpire.

The law further states: "It is unfair for anyone to rub the ball on the ground for any reason, interfere with any of the seams or the surface of the ball, use any implement, or take any other action whatsoever which is likely to alter the condition of the ball."

The umpires can award five penalty runs to the batting side if they are convinced that the above rule has been violated.

However, it was learnt that no charges were being pressed against Tendulkar by the South African side.

Another former India captain Ravi Shastri felt only those who don't know Tendulkar would make such an allegation against him.

"Mike (Denness) must have thought about having a cup of tea in the company of the great Indian master," Shastri quipped, referring to Tendulkar's meeting with the match- referee.

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Mail Cricket Editor