Captain, where's your manager?" All it takes is a puff of wind to start a howling storm. International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee Mike Denness was nursing a glass of red wine when Sourav Ganguly passed him on his way to dinner. The Indian captain said the manager, M.K. Bhargava, would be returning to the team hotel soon and, all courteous, asked, "Why, what's the matter?" Denness, a tall, 61-year-old Englishman, indicated he would rather discuss the matter with Bhargava.

HALF THE TEAM: (From left) Dasgupta, Das, Ganguly, Tendulkar, Sehwag and Singh were caught in a drama in which they became incidental players

When the two finally met outside the hotel's gift shop, Denness presented Bhargava with a letter-and let loose a tidal wave of cricket conspiracy, pride, prejudice, "crime" and "punishment". The fallout of the controversy over Denness and the conduct of the Centurion "Test" could make Bodyline and the Kerry Packer breakaway years look like a pillow fight between five-year-olds. What began on a tidy seaside resort on South Africa's east coast has turned into a wrecking ball that has smashed into world cricket's fragile calm and left it bruised and on the verge of being broken into east and west, black and white.

The Rule Book Laws that Hurt

The ICC Players and Team Officials Code of Conduct: In operation since 1991, this deals with the responsibilities of the captain, players and/or team officials. Captains are responsible for ensuring that play is conducted within the spirit and laws of the game. Players and/or officials are to refrain from engaging in conduct unbecoming of their status, which could bring them or the game of cricket into disrepute. They must at all times accept the umpire's decision and not show dissent. They shall not verbally abuse, assault, intimidate any umpire, referee or spectator. They are also not to use crude or abusive language nor make offensive gestures. Disclosing or publicly commenting upon any alleged or real breach of the code is also forbidden. Recently amended, the code now also includes clauses with regard to contact with bookies and the consumption of drugs. LAW 42 (3) on fair and unfair play: As regards changing the condition of the match ball, it says: (a) Any fielder may polish the ball provided that no artificial substance is used; remove mud from the ball under the supervision of the umpire; dry a wet ball on towel. (b) It is unfair for anyone to rub the ball on the ground for any reason, interfere with any of the seams or the surface of the ball, use any implement, or alter the condition of the ball, except as permitted in (a) above. IN A SPIN: Tendulkar gets rid of the dirt

It's an old fast bowler's saying: if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. The ICC must now feel the heat and must know that the kitchen is due for a takeover. The decision by India and South Africa to cut the ICC and its appointed officials out of the loop over the Denness affair and stage a match on their own is a signal that, in case the ICC has the stomach for it, the new territories of cricket are ready for a scrap. Once the severity of Denness' punishments became known, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Jagmohan Dalmiya, former chief of the ICC and a man with a penchant for coups, phoned the offices of the United Cricket Board (UCB) of South Africa and told them Dubya-like: either you are with us or you are against us.

The staging of the "unofficial" Test is a direct challenge to the ICC's authority and a call to all cricket bodies the world over to pick their sides. The ICC is split: on one side are the Old Countries, England, Australia and small player New Zealand. England and Australia have dominated the ICC's administration for years and continue to do so, both President Malcolm Grey and Chief Executive Malcolm Speed being Australian. On the other side is the financial strength of the subcontinent, headed by India. England captain Nasser Hussain calls India the soul of cricket. More likely, it is its bank account. Close to 70 per cent of the funds generated by the ICC through the sale of TV rights and the staging of events come from the Indian subcontinent. Four major sponsors of the 2003 World Cup in South Africa-Pepsi, Tata, LG and Hero Honda-are India-based firms. On most issues, specially if it means standing up to the West, India is backed firmly by Pakistan and Bangladesh, and now South Africa and Zimbabwe. The two "indecisive" countries remain the West Indies and Sri Lanka, both of whom have old and rich ties with Australia but who cannot sneeze at Indian money.

The chief beneficiary of this dilemma is Dalmiya, who boasts that in his three years as ICC chief, from 1997 to 2000, he ensured the revenues of the council went up from £160,000 (Rs 1.1 crore) to £16 million. Whether it was an acrimonious contest for the rights to stage the 1996 World Cup or the issue of his own presidentship (in which he beat Grey to the job), Dalmiya has always found himself fighting the entrenched English and Australians. But for a man who revels in power play, it was humiliating to be cold-shouldered at the recent meeting of the ICC at Kuala Lumpur. It was almost with glee, therefore, that he piggybacked on Denness into the limelight once again. The East-West divide is not a figment of the imagination; it has become Dalmiya's calling card in this case. He spoke at length to the heads of the boards of Pakistan and Lanka and received endorsement before the day was out. With the South Africans too backing India by isolating Denness, Dalmiya showed the ICC the roster of his faithful. Oblivious of the consternation he had caused in the cricket world, his imperious comment in Kolkata was, "We have only tried to save the game of cricket."