Sri Lankan cricket legend Sanath Jayasuriya charged under ICC Anti-Corruption Code

Sri Lankan cricket legend Sanath Jayasuriya, charged with two counts of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code, has been given 14 days from 15 October 2018 to respond.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has charged Sanath Jayasuriya with two counts of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code. Jayasuriya, the former Sri Lanka Cricket Chair of Selectors, has been charged with the following offences under the Code:

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.

Jayasuriya has 14 days from 15 October 2018 to respond to the charges. The ICC will not make any further comment in respect of these charges at this stage.

However, a source in Sri lanka Cricket told PTI that the former player is in the line of fire for “trying to block” an ICC probe which began in 2015. The investigation into Sri Lankan cricket began after Galle curator Jayananda Warnaweera was banned for three years in 2016 for failing to cooperate with the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU).

“At first, he refused to join the prob when the ACU investigations’ team approached him last year. He also declined the request to part with the information in his phone, which was relevant to the investigators,” the SLC source said.

“But the ICC has not charged him with either match-fixing or any corrupt activitis. The charge against him is only non-cooperation in probe,” he added.

After signing off from international cricket, Jayasuriya also tried his hands at politics and in 2010 became an elected member of the Sri Lankan parliament, a stint which ended in 2015. He also served as a minister.

In 2013, he became the island nation’s cricket selection committee’s chairman. His tenure ended in 2015 after a string of failures by the Lankan team.

With inputs from PTI