The deed is done. South Africa and India have defied the International Cricket Council, the game's governing body, and proceeded with their match at Centurion.

It is not a Test match. ICC even get upset if it is referred to as an unofficial Test, claiming that there is no such thing. Quite whether ICC has the legal right to determine what is a Test and what is not might have to go to the lawyers to sort out. Perish that particular thought! There is every justification for claiming that it is not part of the ICC Test Championship, but that is another matter entirely.

It is not easy to divorce oneself from the emotive heat such incidents engender, but the cold facts are as follows:

· India objected to the decisions of the ICC match referee in the second Test in Port Elizabeth and asked for him to be replaced for the third Test.

· ICC pointed out that there is nothing in the regulations, sanctioned by all the Test nations, to allow that course of action.

· India threatened to withdraw from the series.

· South Africa could not afford to lose revenue from television rights and other income and so, having checked with ICC that their right to stage the next world cup would not be affected, supported India's stand over the removal of Mike Denness as referee.

· ICC reiterated that any match not having the appointed officials in charge would not constitute an official Test and so the match currently in progress has been deemed by the ICC to be a five-day tour match.

Those are the indisputable facts. Disputes will go on for ever as to whether the players were guilty as charged, whether Denness was right to impose the punishments he did, if there should be the right of appeal, what the underlying motives might have been and how all concerned should have reacted. But there is no getting away from the basic facts of the case.

The important thing for world cricket is what happens next. It is tempting to isolate this as a little local difficulty between ICC, India and South Africa, but the implications are much more far-reaching than that. The whole world of cricket is involved.

The ICC could simply back down, sack Denness from its panel of match referees and give retrospective Test status to the match taking place. If it was to do that, it would lose all credibility and forfeit its right to be the governing body of world cricket.

The incident could hasten a split in cricket whereby the oft-contemplated division between the Sub-continent and the rest comes about. As Jagmohan Dalmiya, president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, knows only too well, there is great financial muscle available from the passionate support for the game in his region. He has been involved in some very lucrative deals in the past and could no doubt get involved again.

The possibility of such a split has to be taken seriously, but the use of the threat of a split should be taken even more seriously.

South Africa's position should be closely monitored as well. The income to be gleaned from the granting of rights to television, radio and even the internet is all dependent on legally watertight contracts. Undoubtedly those contracts will refer to certain amounts of money being paid in exchange for rights to a certain number of Tests and one-day internationals. If it is found that the ICC has the exclusive right to deem what is and what does not constitute a Test match and has stated quite categorically that this is not, could the rights holders ask for their money back?

Then there is a practical consideration. Virender Sehwag has been suspended for one Test. He has been left out of this match, but that will not satisfy the ICC.

Spokesman Jonathan Hemus said today "The current match is a friendly match between two countries and therefore any suspensions or bans move on to the next Test match. The next Test match that India play is India against England. We can't speculate or pre-judge what India might or might not do with regard to that match but it is very clear that the ban on Sehwag applies to that first Test match against England. He should not be playing in that game and beyond that we cannot speculate."

The rest of us can speculate, however. We can see the situation in which Sehwag is picked on the basis that he has served his ban in South Africa, ICC step in to say that if his name is on the team sheet handed to the match referee at Mohali on December 3rd, the referee should prevent the match from starting. This one specific aspect could run and run.

Going back to South Africa for a moment, it is claimed by the United Cricket Board communications director, Bronwyn Wilkinson that South Africa will be awarded the third Test match as India have been deemed to have forfeited the game. "This means that South Africa will have won the series 2-0 as for as the Test championship table is concerned," said Wilkinson.

That is not necessarily how ICC spokesman Hemus sees it. "It is a possible outcome, but the ICC could not confirm that as yet. Hopefully that should be resolved in the next few days and as soon as possible. It still needs to be clarified. Exactly who did what, when and what the precise implications of that are. That is not entirely clear at the moment."

Clarity is something that is desperately needed, and it is needed soon. Any delays or indecisive action can only prolong the suffering for cricket. In the long run, this crisis could prove to be as damaging to its well being as bodyline, Packer, throwing, match-fixing and all the other misfortunes that have impinged on the game's dignity.

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