Jayasuriya banned for destroying evidence
NEWDELHI: Former Sri Lanka captain and dashing opener Sanath Jayasuriya was banned from all cricketing activities by ICC’S Anti-corruption Unit on Tuesday.
Jayasuriya admitted to being in breach of provisions pertaining to “failing to cooperate with investigation” and “obstructing investigation”.
“As a result of the admissions, he has accepted a sanction of a two-year period of ineligibility,” said an International Cricket Council statement.
“The conviction of Mr Jayasuriya is the latest part of a much broader ICC ACU investigation into corruption in cricket in Sri Lanka. The ACU recently held an amnesty in relation to Sri Lankan Cricket resulting in 11 players and other participants coming forward with new information,” the statement added.
The Anti-corruption Unit (ACU) in September, 2017, had asked Jayasuriya to hand over his mobile phones so that it could download information needed for investigation.
“The demand also required Mr Jayasuriya to provide various specified information to the ACU by October 6, 2017, including (in summary) copies of his mobile phones’ bills for the period January 1, 2017 to September 22, 2017, bank account information for a specified period, a list of benefits received exceeding a certain value, and details of property he owned.”
While Jayasuriya had handed over two mobile phones, he had with him during the course of investigation on September 22, the next day’s investigation saw him admitting that he had two other phones which he had lost and could not find.
The ICC said in the statement that it called him on one of the ‘lost numbers’ prior to the September 23 questioning and found the phone operational, which proved that Jayasuriya had lied. The phone was again ‘switched off’ after the questioning session.
However, during a later round of investigation on October 5, Jayasuriya admitted that he had destroyed the phone and not lost its data even as he took the SIM and used it in another phone. The SIM was finally handed over to the ACU on October 5.
Jayasuriya, was however, not given the maximum punishment of five years for his breach after the world body took his “previous good conduct” into account. Jayasuriya’s sanction will be a backdated one starting from October 16, 2018.
Jayasuriya defended himself saying, “It is unfortunate that even though I provided the ICC ACU with all the information as demanded by the officials, the ICC ACU thought it fit to charge me under the Code although there were no allegations of corruption, betting or misuse of inside information.”
When asked why he admitted to the charges of having destroyed the evidence as claimed by the ICC, he said: “I accepted the charges for the greater good and to protect the integrity of cricket.”