More Sri Lankans to be charged by ICC for corruption
May 20, 2019, 9:56 pm
Britain’s leading newspaper The Daily Telegraph claims that corruption investigations in Sri Lanka will drag on at least till the end of this year and that more individuals will be charged before September, possibly after the World Cup.
Sri Lankan cricket is rocked by serious allegations of corruption with former Test captain Sanath Jayasuriya banned from the game for two years and several other individuals charged. Former Fast Bowling Coach Nuwan Zoysa, former Batting Coach Avishka Gunawardene, former all-rounder Dilhara Lokuhettige and Sri Lanka Cricket’s Performance Analyst Sanath Jayasundara have been all charged for various breaches of the Anti Corruption Code.
The newspaper reported that the focus of the ICC Anti Corruption Unit at the moment will be to ensure a corruption free Cricket World Cup, the sport’s showpiece event.
It said that the investigators have taken the extraordinary step to warn suspected match fixers against travelling to England for the World Cup having launched the biggest ever protection operation ahead of the ten team event that will get underway later this month in England and Wales.
As a result, anti-corruption officers will be posted with each of the ten teams, a step undertaken for the first time. In addition, there will be two investigators and one evidence analyst on duty throughout the tournament.
The ICC has also taken steps to contact suspected match fixers through solicitors and warned them that they will be thrown out of cricket grounds if they were spotted during a game. The game’s governing body is confident that the World Cup will be clean and poses a low risk due to extra security measures.
"Badly run events attract the corrupters and they look for vulnerabilities in events and players but the World Cup is highly organised, well run, well governed and the players are well protected so we expect it to be clean," Alex Marshall, the General Manager of the ICC’s Anti-Corruption unit was quoted as saying.
"We will be at the hotels, at the grounds, we will be available to the players all the time and we have good relationships with all the squads. The team management and coaches are well briefed on the current threats so in terms of having a strong structure, the tournament is in a good place."
"But the risk is the corrupters know this is a massively high yield if they were to succeed however their chances of succeeding are very low and it is very risky. Whereas if they went for a chaotic T20 competition somewhere else then the risks to them would be much lower and they are more likely to succeed, even though the yield would not be as high. Overall we are expecting to have a very low profile throughout the World Cup unless something occurs."
