Sri Lankans come under ICC scanner

The spot-fixing controversy involving Pakistan players appears to have opened a pandora’s box related to match fixing as reports surface of a Sri Lankan player coming under the scanner of the anti-corruption unit of the International Cricket Council (ICC) for his links with an illegal bookmaker during the Twenty20 World Cup last year.

There are also reports that the ICC has been probing Lankan betting links with the IPL and that punters had a field day during the high-scoring one-day international between Sri Lanka and India in December last year at Rajkot.

ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) has been monitoring the activities of the as yet unnamed Sri Lankan player since the World Twenty20 in England last year, after team-mates became increasingly unsettled by his late-night fraternising with a man they believed to be an illegal bookmaker, according to The Guardian.

They passed on their concerns to the captain, Kumar Sangakkara, who followed ICC protocol by contacting the anti-corruption unit, the British daily reported.

The player has since been investigated by Sri Lankan police, although no charges have been laid; officials from the ICC’s anti-corruption unit are said to be dismayed at the lack of progress.

Some “suspicious characters” had approached Sri Lankan team members more than once last year, reported ESPNcricinfo.

The matter was immediately reported to the ACSU, whereupon Alan Peacock, senior investigator of the unit, took statements from the players who had made the reports.

Nishantha Ranatunga, Sri Lanka Cricket secretary, confirmed that “the report was handed over to ACSU by manager Brendon Kuruppu.”

Meanwhile, a top bookmaker in India, who maintains that he is not involved in the player-bookie nexus, says the December 15, 2009 India- Sri Lanka One-day match at Rajkot was suspicious.

Sri Lanka won the toss, elected to field and India ran amok scoring 414 runs on a placid track. In reply, Sri Lanka rode on Tillakaratne Dilshan’s massive 160 and almost chased the target before falling short by three runs.

While Sri Lanka bowled 27 extras in that game, India bowled 21, in a total of 825 runs scored at the Madhavrao Scindia ground.

“Sri Lanka were 401/5 with just 14 more runs needed from seven balls. The bets were coming in fast because punters wanted to balance the stakes. At the start, India looked firm favourites and there were almost no takers for Sri Lanka win. But towards the end, it all became a frenzy,” the bookie told Times of India.

Reports that a leading Sri Lankan player was under suspicion for links with a bookie has led to fears that IPL was also not immune to investigation by the ICC.

A senior figure in world cricket said the ICC has been probing Sri Lankan betting links with the IPL since its second edition, if not earlier.

The ICC’s interest has been trained on Thilanga Sumathipala, a former chairman of the Sri Lankan cricket board (BCCSL), whose family operates betting shops all over the island. Sumathipala denied any involvement with this aspect of his family’s businesses.

Former Sri Lanka skipper Arjuna Ranatunga is convinced of the involvement of Sumathipala.

“Sumathipala and Sanath Jayasuriya were instrumental in setting up a meeting for Lalit Modi with the Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, in July 2008,” Ranatunga said.

The purpose was to persuade this powerful politician to overturn Ranatunga’s decision as the then chairman of BCCSL to disallow Sri Lankan players to participate in the 2009 IPL and instead tour England, who had offered $2 million to the cash-strapped BCCSL to do so. Rajapaksa duly obliged; the England visit was cancelled and the Sri Lankan cricketers reaped a harvest in the IPL in South Africa.