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

cricketer Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

who played for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...

. 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

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level. He was the sixth player born in Scotland to play for England, after

Gregor MacGregor General Gregor MacGregor (24 December 1786 – 4 December 1845) was a Scottish soldier, adventurer, and confidence trickster who attempted from 1821 to 1837 to draw British and French investors and settlers to "Poyais", a fictional Central A ...

Alec Kennedy Alec or Aleck is a Scottish form of the given name Alex. It may be a diminutive of the name Alexander or a given name in its own right. Notable people with the name include: People *Alec Aalto (1942–2018), Finnish diplomat * Alec Acton (1938– ...

Ian Peebles Ian or Iain is a name of Scottish Gaelic origin, derived from the Hebrew given name (Yohanan, ') and corresponding to the English name John. The spelling Ian is an Anglicization of the Scottish Gaelic forename ''Iain''. It is a popular name in Sc ...

, 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 Test cricket captain turned commentator. Greig qualified to play for the England cricket team by virtue of his Scottish parentage. He was a tall () all-rounder wh ...

had Scottish parents, but Jardine was born in Bombay and Greig in South Africa). Denness later became an

ICC match referee The Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Referees is composed of former international cricket players who are appointed by the ICC to oversee all Test match, One Day International and Twenty20 International cricket matches in the capacity of Match refere ...

. 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 on 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 Ke ...

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 to the southwest, Viewpark to the w ...

North Lanarkshire North Lanarkshire ( sco, North Lanrikshire; gd, Siorrachd Lannraig a Tuath) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the northeast of the City of Glasgow and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs and commuter towns and villages. It als ...

, 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 (formerly Imperial Tobacco Group plc), is a British multinational tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, England. It is the world's fourth-largest international cigarette company measured by market share after Philip Mo ...

. After his family moved to Ayr, he was educated at Ayr Academy, where he played rugby with Ian Ure and Ian McLauchlan and played for Ayr Cricket Club at

Cambusdoon Cambusdoon was a cricket ground in Ayr, Scotland. The ground was used by Ayr Cricket Club until the club moved from the ground in 1997 to the purpose built Cambusdoon New Ground. The first recorded match held on the ground was in 1931 when A ...

, where he was coached by former Sussex player Charles Oakes. Denness was selected to play cricket for Scotland against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

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 Ernest William Swanton (11 February 1907 – 22 January 2000) was an English journalist and author, chiefly known for being a cricket writer and commentator under his initials, E. W. Swanton. He worked as a sports journalist for ''The Daily T ...

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. In his obituary, ''Wisden'' described him as the greatest wicket-keeper-batsman of a ...

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 James Charles Laker (9 February 1922 – 23 April 1986) was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey County Cricket Club from 1946 to 1959 and represented England in 46 Test matches. He was born in Shipley, West Riding of Yo ...

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 cricket, the batting order is the sequence in which batters play through their team's innings, there always being two batters taking part at any one time. All eleven players in a team are required to bat if the innings is completed (i.e., if ...

in partnership with

Brian Luckhurst Brian William Luckhurst (5 February 1939 – 1 March 2005) was an English cricketer, who played his entire county career for Kent County Cricket Club. He played for Kent from 1958 to 1976, usually opening the batting, then in 1985, in an emerge ...

. Denness became a tall, stylish right-handed batsman. He received his county cap in 1965 and Kent won the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It b ...

in 1970 for the first time since 1913. He succeeded

Colin Cowdrey Michael Colin Cowdrey, Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge, (24 December 19324 December 2000) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Oxford University (1952–1954), Kent County Cricket Club (1950–1976) and England (1954–1975). Univers ...

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 The NatWest Pro40 League was a one-day cricket league for first-class cricket counties in England and Wales. It was inaugurated in 1999, but was essentially the old Sunday League retitled to reflect large numbers of matches being played on days ...

three times ( 1972, 1973, 1976), the

Benson & Hedges Cup The Benson & Hedges Cup was a one-day cricket competition for first-class counties in England and Wales that was held from 1972 to 2002, one of cricket's longest sponsorship deals. It was the third major one-day competition established in Englan ...

twice ( 1973, 1976), 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 one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

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 The Second XI Championship is a season-long cricket competition in England that is competed for by the reserve teams of those county cricket clubs that have first-class status. The competition started in 1959 and has been contested annually ever ...

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 Anthony Robert Lewis CBE (born 6 July 1938) is a Welsh former cricketer, who captained England, became a journalist, went on to become the face of BBC Television cricket coverage between 1986 and 1998, and became president of the Marylebone C ...

, and he was appointed to replace

Ray Illingworth Raymond Illingworth 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 20,000 runs in first-class cricket.Arnold, Peter ...

as captain in September 1973. As captain, he suffered a lack of support from

Geoffrey Boycott Sir Geoffrey Boycott (born 21 October 1940) is a former Test cricketer, who played cricket for Yorkshire and England. In a prolific and sometimes controversial playing career from 1962 to 1986, Boycott established himself as one of England's m ...

, 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 Dennis Keith Lillee, (born 18 July 1949) is Australian retired cricketer rated as the "outstanding fast bowler of his generation".

and

Jeff Thomson Jeffrey Robert Thomson (born 16 August 1950) is a former Australian cricketer. Known as "Thommo", he is one of the fastest bowlers in the history of cricket; he bowled a delivery with a speed of 160.6 km/h against the West Indies in Pert ...

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 a ...

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 The 1975 Cricket World Cup (officially called the Prudential Cup '75) was the inaugural men's Cricket World Cup, and the first major tournament in the history of One Day International (ODI) cricket. Organised by the International Cricket Confe ...

, losing to Australia in the semi-final. He stepped down from the

captaincy A captaincy ( es, capitanía , pt, capitania , hr, kapetanija) is a historical administrative division of the former Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires. It was instituted as a method of organization, directly associated with the home-rule a ...

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

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

, 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 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

in 1996. He caused controversy after the

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often 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 Municipality, So ...

between

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

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

Harbhajan Singh Harbhajan Singh (born 3 July 1980) is a member of parliament in Rajya Sabha and an Indian retired cricketer and cricket commentator, who played for the Indian national cricket team from 1998 - 2016. Singh was a right-arm spin bowler. In India ...

for excessive appealing,

Sachin Tendulkar Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (; ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who captained the Indian national team. He is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the all time highest run-sco ...

for alleged ball-tampering, and the captain

Sourav Ganguly Sourav Chandidas Ganguly (; natively spelled as Gangopadhyay; born 8 July 1972), affectionately known as Dada (meaning ''"elder brother"'' in Bengali), is an Indian cricket administrator, commentator and former national cricket team captain w ...

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 world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are 108 national associations, with 12 Full Members and 96 Associate Members. Founded in 1909 as the '' ...

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 World Cup winning squads. Symonds played as a r ...

. 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 contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(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 the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame and was a member of the 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