'India is being targeted unfairly'

The decision to punish ace Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar and five of his teammates has caused a stir in cricketing circles in South Africa with some saying India is being unfairly singled out.

Tendulkar, who has so far had a spotless image in world cricket, has received a sentence of a one-match Test suspension from match referee Mike Denness for tampering with the ball during the second Test against South Africa on Sunday. He was also fined 75 per cent of his match fee.

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly also received a one-Test and two one-day international matches suspension as well as a 75 per cent match fee forfeiture for his failure to control his team's behaviour.

Harbhajan Singh, Shiv Sunder Das and Deep Dasgupta received the same sentence as Tendulkar while Virender Sehwag, according to sources, may have to miss the third and final Test against South Africa that starts Friday in Centurion, after receiving a one-match ban for his excessive appealing.

The decision has evoked anger in cricket circles in South Africa. Although Denness was due to release his findings only later Tuesday, they have been widely reported in the media, who all quote unnamed but "reliable" sources.

Television cameras show Tendulkar was rubbing the ball along the seam, but "you can clearly see Sachin was just trying to get rid of the mud in the main seam," said former South African pace bowler Brett Schultz.

"Only if he was tampering with the cross seam would his action have been suspect."

Joseph Hoover, an angry journalist from Deccan Times , said India is being unjustly singled out worldwide as a target.

"In the past few years, players from South Africa, England and especially Australia have been getting away with murder, while Indian players are being thoroughly punished for similar actions," Hoover told the Afrikaans daily Beeld .

He said South African captain Shaun Pollock appealed just as aggressively.

"He practically does a war dance to get the desired reaction from the umpires.

"Similarly, Jacques Kallis is not shy to launch verbal attacks on the Indian batsmen. So how does this differ from the over-enthusiasm of the Indians?"

Singh, Das, Dasgupta and Sehwag appeared before Mike Denness for excessive appealing and intimidating the umpires, Ian Howell and Russell Tiffin.

Initially, only Tendulkar was called to a hearing after television cameras caught him trying to lift the seam of the ball with his thumb. But the five other members were also summoned to a second hearing Monday night.

Local television production company 'Trademark Television', meanwhile, denied allegations that it had drawn the attention of the match referee to alleged ball tampering by Tendulkar.

Mike Domaine, a director of the company, denied reports in the Indian media that they had alerted Denness to Tendulkar's alleged transgression before he saw the pictures himself.

"We are not here to do the match referee's job for him, and to accuse us of trying to make mischief by alerting him to the pictures is just ridiculous," Domaine told the daily Business Day .

"He (Denness) and the third umpire, Rudi Koertzen, are sitting in an office on their own, with their own monitor. They had seen the incident themselves, on their own monitor, and called for the videotape. On the basis of what they saw on that tape, Denness felt further action was appropriate and called Tendulkar in.

"Our agreement with the International Cricket Council (ICC) extends purely to supplying pictures of questionable incidents provided the match referee asks for them. We don't initiate these procedures because that could be construed as interference."

United Cricket Board of South Africa CEO Gerald Majola tried to get the results of the hearings from Denness after the first hearing Monday, but Denness said a second hearing would take place that evening and he (Denness) was still in contact with the ICC to clarify some issues.

Official findings are expected to be released later Tuesday.

Indo-Asian News Service

Also read: Mike Denness, put up or shut up!

India's tour of South Africa : Complete coverage

--Indo-Asian News Service

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