It would not be officiated by an ICC referee or umpire and neither the result nor statistics would be included in Test match records

ICC chief Malcolm Speed

Denness will be locked out if he does not stand down

UCBSA chief executive Gerald Majola said that he had been told India would not take the field if Denness was standing as referee.

"I cannot really say anything at this stage, but it's disappointing. I certainly won't be going to the ground tomorrow [Friday]," Denness said.

And the board had been instructed by South African sports minister Ngconde Balfour to take whatever action was necessary to ensure that the match went ahead.

Neutral umpire George Sharp has been replaced by South African Dave Orchard, who will stand alongside originally-slated home official Rudi Koertzen. Brian Jerling will become the third umpire.

"We must remember that this is no longer an ICC Test match," UCBSA director of cricket operations Brian Basson said.

India stand firm

Jagmohan Dalmiya, president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), confirmed at a news conference on Thursday that the match would go on as scheduled.

The controversial BCCI boss said that both India and South Africa felt the match would qualify as a Test.

"The ICC did not understand the seriousness of the situation," Dalmiya said. The decisions were extraordinarily harsh. We needed some accommodation."

Six punished

The controversy began when Sachin Tendulkar, and five other Indian players, received punishments from Denness on Tuesday.

The ban was imposed based on this TV evidence

Tendulkar received a suspended ban for ball-tampering based on television evidence.

Captain Sourav Ganguly was also found guilty of failing to control his players, and four other players were punished for excessive appealing.

The decision caused a furore in India, with street demonstrations in New Delhi and calls from parliament to pull out of the tour if Denness' decisions were proven to have been racially motivated.

But Speed said that the punishments would stand.

He added that Test ban handed to Virender Sehwag for excessive appealing would now apply to the first Test match against England in Mohali in December.

The cost of cancelling the Test has been estimated at 35million rand (�2.5million).

"South African cricket and the South African public in general cannot afford the cancellation of this Test match," the UCBSA statement said.

"Although the crisis has not been of our making, we have received reports of protests at South African embassies in India and our country has been caught up in this issue."

Former Test wicket-keeper Denis Lindsay, 62, has been on the ICC referees panel for 18 months.