Mike Denness

          

  It was during his time as Kent captain that Denness experienced his greatest success, winning the John Player League three times, the Benson & Hedges Cup twice and the Gillette Cup once.He made his Kent debut in 1962 and formed one of the country's strongest opening partnerships with Brian Luckhurst. I had the honour of working with Mike in my first role in cricket administration at Essex and Mike was a wonderful source of advice and knowledge. He will be sorely missed by all - especially by everyone at Kent.But he will also be remembered for overseeing one of the game's biggest controversies during a spell as an International Cricket Council match referee.Denness made his Test debut in 1969 and was named captain in 1974, leading a side that came back from 1-0 down to tie the series in West Indies before whitewashing India 3-0 at home. Denness's decision to sanction six Indian players, including Sachin Tendulkar, during a Test match against South Africa in Port Elizabeth in 2001-02 caused a furore that led to both teams barring him from officiating in the next game. The ICC responded by withdrawing Test status from the match.He worked in finance, insurance and public relations before serving as an ICC match referee between 1996 and 2002, and was also an England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) pitch liason officer.Uniquely for an England captain Douglas Jardine and Tony Greig were born in India and South Africa respectively but had Scottish parents  Denness was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1940.