Disgraced Jayasuriya banned for two years

CRICKET finally fired its anti-corruption guns at a legend of the game yesterday when Sanath Jayasuriya was suspended for two years as part of an investigation into Sri Lankan wrongdoing. The International Cricket Council banned the former Sri Lanka captain, who was one of the original pinch-hitters in their 1996 World Cup win, for refusing to hand over phone records for an investigation into Zimbabwe’s surprise one-day series win in 2017. Jayasuriya, 49, who was Sri Lanka’s chairman of selectors at the time of the investigation, is one of the biggest names in the country’s cricket history and was charged after a year-long investigation into the country by the ICC’s anti-corruption unit. Jayasuriya (below) insists he has always acted with integrity and transparency, but rather laughably said he accepted the punishment ‘for the love of the game’ rather than risk a stiffer sentence on appeal. He added in a statement on Twitter that he withheld his phone records from the ICC because they contained personal information. ‘It is unfortunate that I provided the ICC with all the information they demanded but they still saw fit to charge me even though there were no allegations of corruption, betting or misuse of inside information,’ Jayasuriya said. ICC anti-corruption unit general manager Alex Marshall said: ‘This conviction demonstrates the importance of participants in cricket cooperating with investigations.’ Marshall and his investigation team said they had made a ‘serious attempt to break the cycle of corruption that had enveloped Sri Lankan cricket’. Sri Lanka players Nuwan Zoysa, 40, and Dilhara Lokuhettige, 38, have also been charged with corruption offences, but Jayasuriya is the big fish the game needed to catch if they are going to bring credibility to investigations. DUANNE OLIVIER is the latest high-profile South African to turn his back on international cricket by signing a three-year contract with Yorkshire as a Kolpak player. The pace bowler, 26, has taken 48 wickets in 10 Tests at 19 apiece. He said he took the ‘difficult’ decision for the sake of his family’s security.