In a surprising move, the Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) has raised serious questions against the presence of International Cricket Council (ICC) Anti Corruption Unit in the country and referred it’s recently investigation as ‘highly unnecessary’ and at attempt to tarnish the image of the game in the Island, Cricket Age reliably learns.
The ICC, in the later half of January, had launched an amnesty in Sri Lanka in addition to their ongoing investigation against corruption and match fixing. Sri Lanka’s Sports Minister Harin Fernando had also managed to convince the ICC to establish an anti corruption unit office in Colombo, in order to fight against corruption and match fixing.
As per the directive by former Sports Minister Faizer Mustapha, arrangements were made to set up an Anti corruption unit office in Sri Lanka in order to obtain their expertise in tackling the threat of corruption in the country. Accordingly, with the consent of SLC advisory committee and the management committee, ICC coordinator investigation Steve Richardson had arrived in January to take office. Subsequently, Anti corruption unit investigator David Spy had also arrived.
However, Now the recently elected administration at SLC has completely refused to recognize the good work of ICC Anti corruption unit and has raised questions over its investigation and establishment of the office in Colombo.
“The management committee noted the contents and expressed their concerns in this regard and mentioned that further correspondent should be carried out with the ICC and if there is a need, the ICC should make the recommendations and justify their presence in Sri Lanka. The members were of the opinion that this was a highly unnecessary exercise and had been done on the insistence of certain individuals just to tarnish the image of Sri Lanka cricket” the SLC document reads
It is noteworthy that in one of the most unfortunate incident in Sri Lanka cricket history, Shammi Silva was elected as SLC President last month with the same set of people’s, who ruined Sri Lanka Cricket in their previous tenure. The shocking fact is that Shammi Silva father Piyasena De Silva was the manager at SLC former president Thilanga Sumathipala family betting and gaming business outlet Sporting Star. Not only this, Sumathipala, who could not contest the election due to his involvement in betting and gaming business, has also fooled ICC and has returned as immediate past President and now ruining the show once again!
