"Sachin Tendulkar has not been found guilty of ball-tampering. The punishment was for removing grass from the ball but not having informed the umpires," announced ICC nine days too late. If it's a thinly veiled compromise, ICC needs to be condemned for selling its soul. If it's an admission of a mistake, ICC needs to be held responsible forplaying the lead part in a mini-crisis that should have never have escalated into a series-threatening fiasco.

On November 20, Gerald Majola and Mike Denness handed out a media release that stated Tendulkar had been punished for "alleged interference with the match ball, thus changing its condition." The wording then was in itself puzzling: "alleged interference" - do you hand out suspended sentences on basis of allegations?

It was a move that had India seething with rage, while dispassionate experts, such as Richie Benaud, made sense of it: "If that is not picking the seam of a cricket ball, then I played the lead in Mrs Doubtfire." Never mind that Benaud could well pass himself off as Robin Williams in drag, it was a verdict that the more discerning Indian came to accept: Sachin did, in fact, act outside the law, if nothing else, for doing what he did without the umpires' permission. And ICC stood by their man.

Denness now himself says that "Tendulkar was punished not for tampering with the ball." In making this remark he has violated code No. 4 for ICC referees: "The Referee must not make any detrimental written or spoken comment in the media/press about any tour, Test match or ODI match in which he is involved." He could be pardoned earlier for misjudgement, but he must be sacked now for breaking the law, in letter, if not in spirit.

If he was granted permission to speak by ICC then ICC is guilty of making exceptions to its own code, but only when this suits it best - it didn't even consider, for example, the request for a new referee for the Centurion match.

Moreover, ICC was dumb. Dumb for sitting on this knowledge -assuming Denness was not arm-twisted into his latest stand -and not letting the world know. Ball-tampering, ball-tampering, ball-tampering: it was in your face, every paper you read, every TV screen you saw. All they needed to do was clarify. Jagmohan Dalmiya might have still been horribly, unneccessarily pig-headed about Virender Sehwag's ban, but India would have certainly been soothed by the knowledge that Sachin was not accused of being a cheat. It would have been half the battle won.

Rahul Bhattacharya is a staff writer with Wisden.com in India

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