Sri Lankan players approached over one year by bookies
The issue of match-fixing is not restricted to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 only. Some leading sports websites and newspapers have reported that the international Cricket Council (ICC) is keeping tabs on a particular Sri Lankan cricketer for his alleged links with illegal bookies. It has also been reported that approaches have been made by such illegal bookies to some of the Sri Lankan cricketers over the last year.
The first time this happened was during the 2009 edition of the ICC World T20, when the Sri Lankan players had reported that there were shady people, "hanging around and trying to talk and approach". This was reported to the team management who passed on the information to the Anti Corruption and Security Unit of the ICC. The ACSU spoke with the Sri Lankan cricketers and took their statements down.
This was confirmed by the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Nishantha-Ranatunga-c79713, who said that this reporting was recorded by manager Brendon Kuruppu and he had handed it over the ACSU. ACSU representative Alan Peacock spoke to the Lankan cricketers and asked them to report any such instances in the future as well.
According to the reports, there were many other such approaches throughout the last year, and that had made it difficult for the Sri Lankan team to bind together.
While the players have been encouraged to report any such occurrences, there have been issues like confidentiality that have deterred some of the cricketers. There have been cases of the media getting a whiff of this report and the players’ safety being compromised in the process. That is also one of the reasons why some of the players have not been up-front about the issue.
However, the issue is not restricted to the cricketers only. Earlier, the ICC closely followed the activities of Thilanga Sumathipala, a former chairman of the Sri Lankan cricket board, given that his family has operated betting shops all over the country. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Arjuna-Ranatunga-c45447, who was the captain of the side at that time, said he was sure that Sumathipala was involved in the issue.
It was also reported by one of the dailies in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 that Ranatunga had said that Sumathipala and Sanath Jayasuriya had set up the meeting of Lalit Modi with the Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, in July 2008. This was done in order to allow the Lankan cricketers to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL), which would then allow Sumathipala’s betting business to thrive.
Ranatunga has also allegedly said that given that Sumathipala is a media tycoon, the president Rajapaksa would like to keep him in his good books.
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