COLOMBO: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has charged Sri Lankan batting legend and former chief national selector Sanath Jayasuriya with two counts of breaching its Anti-Corruption Code. Jayasuriya has been charged with the following offences:
Article 2.4.6 – Failure or refusal, without compelling justification, to cooperate with any investigation carried out by the ACU, including failure to provide accurately and completely any information and/or documentation requested by the ACU as part of such investigation.
Article 2.4.7 – Obstructing or delaying any investigation that may be carried out by the ACU, including concealing, tampering with or destroying any documentation or other information that may be relevant to that investigation and/or that may be evidence or may lead to the discovery of evidence of corrupt conduct under the Anti-Corruption Code.
The ICC has given the Sri Lankan until 29 October to respond to the charges. However, the 49-year old has maintained his innocence having “always conducted [himself] with integrity and transparency with matters concerning the sport”, according to a press release on Tuesday. He added that the charges “do not contain any allegations pertaining to match fixing, pitch fixing or any other similar corrupt activity” and that he is “not in any position to release any comments at this moment” as per “strict legal advice that no comment is to be made in respect of the charges as such a course would offend the ICC rules”.
Jayasuriya seemed to have been referred to in the Al-Jazeera documentary ‘Cricket’s Match Fixers’ that exposed corruption in Sri Lankan cricket.
The 49-year-old, who served as Sri Lanka’s chairman of selectors besides being a former Parliamentarian, said in a statement released after the charges were made that he would comment further only after his response to the ICC is submitted.
He stated: “I am initially required to submit my response within 14 days. I am under strict legal advice that no comment is to be made in respect of the above charges as such a course would offend the ICC Rules.
“However, I am under advice to state that the above charges do not contain any allegations pertaining to match-fixing, pitch fixing or any other similar corrupt activity.
“I have always conducted myself with integrity and transparency with matters concerning the sport and I will continue to do so.”
