Michael Henry Denness (1 December 1940 – 19 April 2013) was a Scottish

cricketer Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

who played for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

and

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

. Scotland did not have a representative international team at the time of Denness' career, so he could only play for England at

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

and ODI level. He was the sixth player born in Scotland to play for England, after Gregor MacGregor, Alec Kennedy, Ian Peebles, David Larter and Eric Russell, but remains the only England captain to be born in Scotland ( Douglas Jardine and

Tony Greig Anthony William Greig (6 October 194629 December 2012) was a South African-born cricketer and commentator. Greig qualified to play for the England cricket team by virtue of his Scottish father. He was a tall () all-rounder who bowled both ...

had Scottish parents, but Jardine was born in Bombay and Greig in South Africa). Denness later became an ICC match referee. He was one of the inaugural inductees into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame and was a

Wisden Cricketer of the Year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based "primarily for their influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

in 1975. He was president of

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ken ...

in 2012–13.

Early life

Denness was born in

Bellshill Bellshill (pronounced "Bells hill") is a town in North Lanarkshire in Scotland, southeast of Glasgow city centre and west of Edinburgh. Other nearby localities are Motherwell to the south, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton to the south ...

North Lanarkshire North Lanarkshire (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the north-east of the Glasgow City council area and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs, commuter towns, and villages. It also borders East Dunbartonshire, Falkirk (co ...

, Scotland. His father was employed by W.D. & H.O. Wills, a tobacco importer and cigarette manufacturer and part of

Imperial Tobacco Imperial Brands plc (originally the Imperial Tobacco Company of Great Britain & Ireland, and subsequently Imperial Tobacco Group plc) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, England. It is ...

. After his family moved to Ayr, he was educated at

Ayr Academy Ayr Academy (Scottish Gaelic: ''Acadamaidh Inbhir Àir'') is an 11–18 non-denominational secondary school situated within the Craigie Estate area at University Avenue in Ayr, South Ayrshire. It is the sixth largest secondary school in South Ayr ...

, where he played rugby with Ian Ure and Ian McLauchlan and played for Ayr Cricket Club at Cambusdoon, where he was coached by former Sussex player Charles Oakes. Denness was selected to play cricket for Scotland against

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

in 1959 while still at school. Former Kent bowler Jimmy Allan was also in the Scotland team, and he suggested Denness's name to his former county. E. W. Swanton also met Denness in Ayr and put in a good word, and

Les Ames Leslie Ethelbert George Ames (3 December 1905 – 27 February 1990) was a wicket-keeper and batsman for the England cricket team and Kent County Cricket Club. Born at Elham, Kent, Ames began his first-class cricket, first-class career with h ...

invited Denness to a trial in 1961.

Domestic cricket career

Denness made his first-class debut for

against

in July 1962 but was dismissed by Jim Laker twice on a turning pitch for 0 and 3. But he quickly established himself in the team, scoring over 1,000 runs in the 1963 season. From 1964 he played as an opening batsman in partnership with Brian Luckhurst. Denness became a tall, stylish right-handed batsman. He received his county cap in 1965 and Kent won the

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

for the first time since 1913. He succeeded Colin Cowdrey as Kent captain at the beginning of the 1972 cricket season, having often substituted for Cowdrey when he was on Test duty. Under his captaincy, the club won the John Player League three times (

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

1973 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

), the Benson & Hedges Cup twice (

), and the Gillette Cup once (in

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

; also his benefit season). Denness was a

in 1975. After 5 years as captain, the club voted to replace him as captain by Asif Iqbal at the end of the 1976 season. After being dismissed as captain at Kent, he moved to Essex in 1977, helping the club to win the County Championship and Benson & Hedges Cup in 1979. He retired after the 1980 English cricket season. In all, he made 501 appearances in

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

and 232 more in one day matches. He scored over 30,000 domestic runs in all, including 33 first-class hundreds and a best of 195, and six one-day centuries with a top score of 188 not out. He also took two wickets with his occasional bowling. He scored over 1,000 first-class runs in 14 English cricket seasons. After he retired as a player at the end of the 1980 English cricket season Denness became 2nd XI captain at Essex and also worked as a coach. Outside cricket, he had jobs in finance, insurance and public relations.

Test cricket

Denness played for

in 28 Tests and was the captain on 19 occasions, winning six, losing five and drawing eight matches. He made his Test debut in the final test against New Zealand at The Oval in 1969. After the cancellation of the 1970 South Africa tour, Denness played in the first match against the Rest of the World XI in 1970, before being dropped. He was vice-captain on the tour to India in 1972-3, captained by Tony Lewis, and he was appointed to replace

Ray Illingworth Raymond Illingworth Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (8 June 1932 – 25 December 2021) was an English cricketer, cricket commentator and administrator. , he was one of only nine players to have taken 2,000 wickets and made 20, ...

as captain in September 1973. As captain, he suffered a lack of support from Geoffrey Boycott, who had hoped to be appointed captain instead, and these tensions contributed to the downfall of Denness as a skipper. Boycott played in the first 6 Tests with Denness as captain, including the five matches in the 1–1 drawn series in the West Indies and the first Test of a 3–0 whitewash against India, during which Denness scored his first two Test centuries, but Boycott then refused to play under Denness and remained out of the Test team until 1977. After a 0–0 drawn three-match series against Pakistan at home in 1974, Boycott's boycott left England exposed in several matches against the fast bowling of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson in the Ashes series in Australia in 1974-5. Denness dropped himself from the England team for the 4th Test at Sydney after scoring only 65 runs in 6 innings (6, 26, 2, 20, 8, 2) in the first three Tests, although he was selected again for the 5th Test in Adelaide after his replacement

John Edrich John Hugh Edrich, (21 June 1937 – 23 December 2020) was an English first-class cricketer who, during a career that ran from 1956 to 1978, was considered one of the best batsmen of his generation. Born in Blofield, Norfolk, Edrich came from ...

was injured, and achieving his highest Test score of 188 at Melbourne in the 6th Test to win by an innings. The victory was little consolation, as Australia had already won four of the six matches in the series. While in Australia, Denness received an envelope that had been sent with the address "Mike Denness, cricketer". The letter inside read, "Should this reach you, the post office clearly thinks more of your ability than I do." He scored another large Test century, 181, when the tour continued to New Zealand, and captained England in the 1975 Cricket World Cup, losing to Australia in the semi-final. He stepped down from the

captaincy A captaincy ( , , ) is a historical administrative division of the former Spanish colonies, Spanish and Portuguese colonies, Portuguese colonial empires. It was instituted as a method of organization, directly associated with the home-rule admin ...

after losing the 1st Test of the 1975 Ashes series against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, at Edgbaston, by an innings (he had been dismissed for 3 and 8). He was replaced by

and never played for England again. Denness scored 1,667 runs in his 28 Tests, including four centuries. His seven accompanying half-centuries helped to leave him with a Test

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of 39.69. His ODI career was less successful, playing only 12 matches and scoring 264 runs at an average of 29.33, with a best of 66.

Match referee

Denness was appointed as an ICC match referee in 1996. He caused controversy after the

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...

between

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and the visiting Indians in 2001-2 when he sanctioned six Indian players, four including

Virender Sehwag Virender Sehwag (, born 20 October 1978) is a former Indian cricketer who represented India from 1999 to 2013. Widely regarded as one of the most destructive openers and one of the greatest batsmen of his era, he played for Delhi Capitals in I ...

and

Harbhajan Singh Harbhajan Singh (born 3 July 1980), also known by his nickname Bhajji, is a former Indian cricketer. He later became a politics, politician, serving as a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha. He is also a fil ...

for excessive appealing,

Sachin Tendulkar Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (; ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who List of India national cricket captains#Men's cricket, captained the Indian national team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketer ...

for alleged ball-tampering, and the captain

Sourav Ganguly Sourav Chandidas Ganguly (; natively spelled as Gangopadhyay; born 8 July 1972), also known as Dada (meaning ''"elder brother"'' in Bengali language, Bengali), is an Indian cricket commentator and former cricketer. He is popularly called the ...

for failing to control his players. At first, India refused to accept the sanctions and named the players for the following Test match. The

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global Sports governing body, governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England, and South Africa. In 1965, the body wa ...

responded by stripping the game of Test match status. Soon after, both the BCCI and ICC decided to establish a referee committee to verify Denness's conclusions. The match referee was heavily criticised for failing to explain his actions at a press conference, thus infuriating the Indian cricket establishment. The BCCI later decided to forget the incident on humanitarian grounds, after Denness underwent heart surgery. In March 2002, Denness' role as a match referee came to an end, when the ICC rejected his bid for their newly formed Elite Panel of Referees, although he had been put forward by the ECB as a candidate.

Later life

Denness became a committee member at Kent, and was chairman of cricket at Kent until he resigned in 2004 over a dispute involving

Andrew Symonds Andrew Symonds (9 June 1975 – 14 May 2022) was an Australian international cricketer, who played all three formats as a batting all-rounder. Commonly nicknamed "Roy", he was a key member of two Cricket World Cup, World Cup–winning squads. ...

. He was president of

in 2012–13, Denness was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to sport. He published his autobiography, ''I Declare'', in 1977. He was an inaugural member of both the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame and Scottish Cricket Hall of Fame. He married his childhood sweetheart, Molly, in 1964. They had a son and two daughters. They were divorced. Denness died at the age of 72, on 19 April 2013, after a long battle with cancer. He was survived by his partner, Doreen Wadlow, and his three children.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Denness, Mike 1940 births 2013 deaths Deaths from cancer in England Cricketers at the 1975 Cricket World Cup Cricket match referees England One Day International cricketers England Test cricketers England Test cricket captains Essex cricketers International Cavaliers cricketers Kent cricketers Kent cricket captains Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Ayr Academy Presidents of Kent County Cricket Club Sportspeople from Bellshill Scottish cricketers Wisden Cricketers of the Year Scotland cricketers Scottish cricket captains Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers A. E. R. Gilligan's XI cricketers D. H. Robins' XI cricketers Ayr RFC players Marylebone Cricket Club President's XI cricketers