Given the current scenario across the globe, cricket fans have been deprived of live cricketing action for a while now. Barring a few small leagues, there hasn’t been much cricketing action around the globe. When reports emerged of new T20 tournament (Uva T20 league) being played in Sri Lanka emerged, the fans thought they would finally get to witness some quality live action. However, in a bizarre turn of events, while the tournament kicked off, the matches were played near Mohali in India’s Chandigarh and not in Sri Lanka!
On Wednesday, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) issued a statement clarifying about no such tournament being hosted in the country.
“It was noted that several Indian websites have even advertised a scoreboard on June 29 stating that the Uva Premier League T20 is being played at the Badulla Stadium, but SLC wishes to confirm that no such tournament was taking place and or will be held in Sri Lanka,” the statement read.
The commentators said that the match was played between Monaragala Hornets vs Wellawaya Vipers at the Badulla Cricket Ground.
The tournament did start on June 29, but the match was played at a ground in Sawara village, 16 km from Chandigarh off Punjab State Highway 12A. As per the report, no Sri Lankan players were a part of the match which saw local players from Punjab play against each other wearing masks.
While some of the Indian websites also ran a scorecard, the camera angles were not proper and it was difficult to even identify the players. After Fancode, a multisport aggregator platform, live-streamed two matches, the SLC’s legal team reached out to them to inform that the matches were not approved by the board.
Now, the BCCI’s Anti-Corruption Unit said that the police must investigate the matter.
“As far as we know, no BCCI-registered player has played in it. If it is done for betting, it is for the police to investigate. It is a criminal offence under the laws against betting. It could be anything, they could even be showing footage of an old match. It is a matter of finding out where it happened, who organised it, what was the purpose… apparently it is betting,” Ajit Singh said.
CEO of SLC, Ashley De Silva said that he had directed the Anti-corruption officer of SLC to look into the matter and it was reported by the said officer that no such tournament is being played in Sri Lanka.
While the probe is on, two people are said to have been arrested so far.
