LANKA CRICKETER JAYASURIYA IN TROUBLE
CHARGED WITH BREACHING ANTICORRUPTION CODE
MUMBAI: Sri Lankan cricket legend Sanath Jayasuriya has been charged by the International Cricket Council of breaching its anti-corruption code on two counts.
The ICC said on Monday that Jayasuriya has been charged with ‘failing to cooperate’ and ‘obstructing or delaying’ ICC Anti-Corruption Unit’s (ACU) investigation. He has been given 14 days, from Monday, to respond to the charges.
The ICC said the charges relate to articles 2.4.6 and 2.4.7 of the anti-corruption code.
“Article 2.4.6 — Failure or refusal, without compelling justification, to cooperate with any investigation carried out by the ACU, including failure to provide accurately and completely any information and/or documentation requested by the ACU as part of such investigation.”
“Article 2.4.7 – Obstructing or delaying any investigation that may be carried out by the ACU, including concealing, tampering with or destroying any documentation or other information that may be relevant to that investigation and/or that may be evidence or may lead to the discovery of evidence of corrupt conduct under the Anti-Corruption Code,” the ICC release added.
The development comes when Sri Lankan cricket has been in crisis both on and off the field. The ICC announced on September 23 that it was investigating allegations of corruption in Sri Lankan cricket.
“As part of this we are talking to a number of people,” said Alex Marshall, ICC Anti-Corruption Unit general manager.
“The enquiries are continuing so it would not be appropriate to comment further, but I can confirm that we have, at their request, provided a detailed briefing to the Sri Lankan President, Prime Minister and Sports Minister,” Marshall said in a statement on October 3.
In May, an Al Jazeera investigation revealed how two Test matches were fixed. The two fixed matches were Sri Lanka versus India in July, 2017 and Sri Lanka versus Australia in August 2016.
Also, former selector Pramodya Wickremasinghe had said in a TV interview that there had been suspicions over “unnatural match patterns” in the country, leading to a furore.