Alex Marshall, the International Cricket Council (ICC) anti corruption unit general manager has arrived in Sri Lanka to oversee the ongoing investigation against match fixing and corruption charges, Cricket Age reliably learns.
During his stay in Sri Lanka, Marshal is scheduled to meet Sports Minister Harin Fernando as well.
It is noteworthy that the ICC on January 10 announced a 15-day amnesty to participants who have previously failed to report any information concerning corrupt conduct in Sri Lankan cricket. The amnesty, which will run from 16-31 January, will apply to all participants under both the ICC and Sri Lankan Cricket Anti-Corruption codes.
Under these codes, both domestic and international participants are obliged to report, without delay, full details of any approaches, incident or information that they receive to engage in corrupt conduct. Failure to do so is a serious offence and can result in a ban from cricket of up to five years. However, under the amnesty, any information reported by a participant will not attract a charge for their failure to report previously.
“This is the first time the ICC has held an amnesty and it is in response to the very specific challenges we face in Sri Lanka. Allowing retrospective reporting of alleged approaches to engage in corrupt conduct will assist in our ongoing and wide-ranging investigations, as well as enabling us to continue to develop a comprehensive picture of the situation there” Alex Marshall had said on January 10.
“If any player or participant has any information concerning corrupt conduct they should come forward and share it with us now without fear of any repercussions.
“We would urge any participant with any information that may demonstrate corrupt conduct affecting cricket in Sri Lanka to come forward in the strictest of confidence” he had added further .
Reports can be made 24 hours a day in a number of ways:
ICC Integrity App, which is available for download by searching ‘ICC Integrity’ via the Apple ‘App Store’ or ‘Andriod Apps’
ICC ACU Hotline: +971 565 458909
ICC ACU e-mail: [email protected]
The ICC also has an ACU representative based in Sri Lanka throughout the duration of the amnesty, who can be contacted using the same ICC Integrity App, ACU Hotline number or ACU e-mail address as detailed above.
If any participant requires further information regarding the details of the amnesty, they should contact the ICC using the methods detailed above.
Harin Fernando has also urged all SLC contracted players, employees, coaches and stakeholders to come clean in the coming two weeks if they had been approached, knew of or were involved in any form of corruption.
“This game, we all love, belongs to the cricketers who sweat it out day in day out, not to the officials at the board. They have named Sri Lanka as the most corrupt country playing cricket in the world, I felt really sad when ICC revealed those corruptions details. We need to clean this mess and reclaim our lost glory.” Minister Fernando had said on january 10 at the Sports Ministry Auditorium.
“The new anti-corruption laws in Sri Lanka will be presented to the Parliament in March. Then once it’s passed, we can start punishing the corrupt individuals with a five-year jail sentence. “
