Michael Henry Denness OBE (1 December 1940 – 19 April 2013)[1][2] was a Scottish cricketer who played for England, Scotland, Kent and Essex.

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

Former Kent bowler Jimmy Allan was also in the Scotland team, and he suggested Denness's name to his former county.

Denness made his first-class debut for Kent against Essex in July 1962 but was dismissed by Jim Laker twice on a turning pitch for 0 and 3.

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.

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.

[6] Denness played for England in 28 Tests and was the captain on 19 occasions, winning six, losing five and drawing eight matches.

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.

"[9] 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 caused controversy after the Port Elizabeth Test between South Africa and the visiting Indians in 2001-2 when he sanctioned six Indian players, four including Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh for excessive appealing, Sachin Tendulkar for alleged ball-tampering, and the captain Sourav Ganguly for failing to control his players.

The match referee was heavily criticised for failing to explain his actions at a press conference, thus infuriating the Indian cricket establishment.

[10] The BCCI later decided to forget the incident on humanitarian grounds, after Denness underwent heart surgery.

He was president of Kent County Cricket Club in 2012–13, Denness was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to sport.