Sri Lanka cricket captain Kumar Sangakkara has denied media reports of Tillakaratne Dilshan meeting bookies at a nightclub in England during the Twenty20 World Cup.
Sri Lanka Cricket said it was pacer Dilhara Fernando, who was approached by a bookie, and that the incident was reported to the ICC (International Cricket Council).
Media reports claimed that the Sri Lankan team manager had reported Dilshan to the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit after Sangakkara passed on suspicions among team-mates that Dilshan had been seen with the bookie during the World Twenty20 tournament in England in June 2009.
The Sri Lankans followed the ICC’s protocol, reporting the alleged incident as soon as it was made known to the team management, reports further added.
But Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara defended Dilshan and said that “neither I nor the Sri Lankan cricket board ever reported anything specific against any team mate”.
Sangakkara had also said Dilhara Fernando “should be applauded for following the rules” when a bookie approached him and alerting the Sri Lanka authorities, who, in turn, shared the information with the ICC.
“We have no reasons to suspect any of our team members being involved in any such thing like fixing. We encourage players to report any suspicious behaviour they observe. Players should not be afraid of reporting this,” Sangakkara was quoted as saying by TV channels.
Speaking to Television channel CNN-IBN, Sangakkara said: “We have no reasons to suspect any of our team members being involved in any such thing like fixing.
“We encourage players to report any suspicious behaviour they observe. Players should not be afraid of reporting this,” he added.
Sangakkara said he he trained with Tilakaratne this morning but had not had a word with him after the Daily Mail claimed that Dilshan was the player named in a Sri Lanka Board report to the ICC’S ACSU last year.
The Lankan wicketkeeper-batsman, who plays for Kings XI Punjab, also denied having seen any suspicious activity during the IPL.
“I have not seen anything of this sort during the IPL,” he said, adding that it was time to restore public confidence in cricket.
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