Michael De Zoysa, one of the stalwart of Sri Lanka Cricket and prestigious Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) has come forward in support of Sachitra Senanayake over a mysterious questioning of off-spinner by International Cricket Council (ICC) anti corruption unit (ACU) few months back.
Yesterday, Cricket Age had published that how ACU top officials are desperately wandering in and around Sachitra Senanayake lawyer’s office in an attempt to make him witness in one of the ongoing investigation.
After charging Sri Lanka former player and A team coach Avishka Gunawardana on May 10 under Emirates Cricket Council (ECB) related to 2017 Edition of T10 league in Dubai, the ACU officials are finding it difficult to start the hearing even after more than three months, largely due to the lack of evidences and witnesses against him.
Cricket Age understands that ACU officials claims that Sachitra Senanayake and one more spin bowling allrounder Ramith Rambukwella are witness in Avishka’s case.
However, till now, ACU officials have not sent any of the statement to Avishka’s lawyer. Moreover, as Ramith Rambukwella forgot playing cricket and disappeared somewhere in USA as soon as Avishka was charged, it became impossible for ACU officials to contact him.
In this desperate scenario, one of the ACU official Steve Richardson went to Sachitra’s lawyer office on Thursday.
However, when Cricket Age inquired about the matter, some shocking facts were revealed.
Sachitra, who played 1 test, 49 ODIs and 24 T20Is for Sri Lanka, has not made any statement and has not even given his consent to be a witness.
Instead, few months ago, Sachitra was taken from one of the ground midway through a match and his phones were taken without his consent.
After Cricket Age published the story, Michael De Zoysa has come forward to speak about that particular incident.
“I was there at that time, when ACU officials took Sachitra like a suspect. He was playing a match at Colombo Oval, when suddenly ACU officials came and took Sachitra under their custody. Yes, it was like custody, as they immediately took his phones without bothering to inform him anything” Michael De Zoysa told Cricket Age.
Later, ACU officials took Sachitra to a hotel, where they interrogated him.
“The poor guy can’t speak English. When he requested ACU officials to allow him to talk to his wife, they forced him to talk only in English” Michael De Zoysa added further.
Interestingly, the incident happened few months ago, but ACU officials are yet to announce on what basis and for what purpose they interrogated Sachitra.
It is noteworthy that the ACU officials, including Steve Richardson, are searching terrorists (as they have become notorious for treating cricketers as terrorists) in Sri Lanka since last 10 months and are getting paid a whopping 13,000 USD per month from Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) for their joyride in the Island. However, even though they have established a laboratory in Sri Lanka to do match fixing experiments, they are yet to announce any of the outright result, as their all the investigations are (as usually) still pending!
Now, Michael De Zoysa statement has raised several questions against ACU functioning on Sri Lanka. One of the most respected personality in Sri Lanka cricket, Michael De Zoysa served national team as a manager in 2014-15. During former Sports Minister Faizer Mustapha time, he headed Cricket Committee at Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) as well. Also, he has associated with SSC since last three decades and has served at various capacities.
