FALL FROM GRACE

Sanath Jayasuriya banned for two years by ICC

Former National Cricket Captain Sanath Jayasuriya was yesterday banned for t wo years effective retrospectively (commencing 16th October 2018), from all cricket-related activity after he admitted to breaching two counts of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Anti-corruption Code.

The ICC in a statement yesterday, said the ban was a result of Jayasuriya breaching 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) and 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) of the code.

In its report detailing the investigation and decision, the ICC said that its Anti-corruption Unit (ACU) had first interviewed Jayasuriya, as part of its investigation into corruption in cricket in Sri Lanka, on September 22, 2017, when he was issued with a demand, to hand over mobile phones belonging to him.

Jayasuriya had been in possession of two mobiles at the time, which he handed over to the ICC ACU officials, also stating that he did not own any other phones and that any previous phone he had owned had been disconnected.

GRASSY AREA

However, the following day, at a second interview Jayasuriya had admitted to owning two other phones – one ending with the numbers 088 and the other ending with 888 - between January 1, 2017 and the day of the first interview, which he claimed to have lost in a ‘grassy area’ somewhere in Colombo sometime between 15 and 24/25 May and could not be retrieved despite reporting it to the service provider.

At that interview, Jayasuriya had stated that anyone calling those numbers since the day he had lost them, would have heard an automated service provider message stating the customer called had not responded and to try again later.

However, the ICC had already been aware of the existence of a phone belonging to him ending with the number 888, which had rung but gone unanswered when contacted by the ICC ACU on September 22 and the morning of September 23.

At a third interview, two weeks later, a Lawyer present with Jayasuriya clarified that “What he meant by he lost two phones [is] that he has destroyed the phone ... 888”.

GREAT STRESS

This had occurred, Jayasuriya had said, on May 24 2017, when was being hounded by journalists and was under great stress, and as a result he had thrown the phone on the ground and thrashed it on purposed.

Jayasuriya then added that his driver had removed the SIM card from the damaged phone, but had not given him the phone, after which Jayasuriya had inserted the SIM into an old iphone he had in his possession.

He had also stated that he did not use this SIM card to make calls but only to check texts messages from time to time, and while he had the phone in his possession during the weekdays it was handed to his driver over the weekend, to monitor calls and was the reason that the calls made by the ACU officials had gone unanswered.

Jayasuriya had handed over this phone to ICC at this instance, and it was later established by the ICC, through billing records that this SIM card had made “hundreds of outgoing texts and calls” between 15 March 2017 and 14 September 2017, and the iphone had been used for 21 outgoing calls and text messages and received seven calls between September 15 and 23.

44 TEXT MESSAGES

Between the second interview and the day Jayasuriya handed over the iphone to the ICC ACU, he had received atleast 44 text messages and six missed calls, the report also said.

Subsequently, Jayasuriya had admitted to the charges levelled against him, and had accepted the two-year ban proposed to him by the ICC.

The ban prevents Jayasuriya from playing, coaching, officiating or participating or being involved in any capacity in any match or any other kind of function, event or that is authorised, organised, sanctioned, recognised or supported in any way by the ICC, a National Cricket Federation, or any member under the jurisdiction of a National Cricket Federation.

Jayasuriya responded to the suspension on his Facebook page, stating that it was unfortunate that despite his cooperation with the investigation, that the ICC ACU chose to charge him.

“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,” his statement read.

“I reiterate the fact that I have always maintained a high degree of integrity throughout my cricketing career. I have always put country first and the cricket loving public are the best witnesses to this aspect.”