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Full name Michael Henry Denness
Born December 1, 1940, Bellshill, Lanarkshire, Scotland
Current age 67 years 168 days
Major teams England, Scotland, Essex, Kent
Nickname Haggis
Batting style Right-hand bat
Other Referee
Height 5 ft 11 in
Education Ayr Academy

Batting and fielding averages
	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct
Tests	28	45	3	1667	188	39.69			4	7	192	2	28
ODIs	12	11	2	264	66	29.33	417	63.30	0	1	17	2	1
First-class	501	838	65	25886	195	33.48			33	152			410
List A	232	219	21	5393	118*	27.23			6	28			94

Bowling averages
	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	28	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
ODIs	12	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
First-class	501		84	62	2	1/7		31.00	4.42	42.0		0	0
List A	232	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Career statistics
Test debut	England v New Zealand at The Oval, Aug 21-26, 1969 scorecard
Last Test	England v Australia at Birmingham, Jul 10-14, 1975 scorecard
Test statistics
ODI debut	England v West Indies at Leeds, Sep 5, 1973 scorecard
Last ODI	England v Australia at Leeds, Jun 18, 1975 scorecard
ODI statistics
First-class span	1959 - 1980
List A span	1963 - 1980

ICC match referee statistics
Test debut	West Indies v New Zealand at Bridgetown, Apr 19-23, 1996 scorecard
Last Test	Pakistan v West Indies at Sharjah, Feb 7-10, 2002 scorecard
Test matches	14
Test statistics
ODI debut	West Indies v New Zealand at Kingston, Mar 26, 1996 scorecard
Last ODI	Pakistan v West Indies at Sharjah, Feb 17, 2002 scorecard
ODI matches	35
ODI statistics

Profile

Few contemporary batsmen were more stylish than Mike Denness at his peak, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Tallish and slim, well-balanced, immaculately dressed on and off the field, possessed of a fine array of strokes and an excellent cover fieldsman to boot, Denness looked a model cricketer in every way. It was his misfortune that when those qualities won him the England captaincy, after Ray Illingworth's dismissal, he lacked the support of one of the players on whom he was most dependent. Geoff Boycott, who made no secret of how acutely he coveted the captaincy himself, played only the first six of Denness's 19 Tests as captain, which fatally holed England's prospects against Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson in Australia in 1974-75. Deposed when Australia won the first Test of 1975 at Edgbaston, Denness took his medicine with typical graciousness. He later became an ICC match referee but, at Port Elizabeth in 2001-02, his decision to sanction six Indian players, including Sachin Tendulkar, caused such a furore that the Indian and South African boards barred Denness from officiating in the next match, at Centurion. The ICC responded by withdrawing Test status from the game.
John Thicknesse

Nov 22, 2001

Protestors in Kolkata criticise the judgements of Mike Denness
© AFP

Nov 2, 2001

Protesters burn a (very bad) effigy of Mike Denness
© Getty Images

Jun 11, 2001

Mike Denness Portrait 2001
© Cricinfo Ltd

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