The International Cricket Council Anti Corruption Unit (ICC ACU) officials yesterday (29) questioned Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) domestic tournaments assistant manager Chinthaka Jayanath in a leading Colombo hotel. One of the main charge against Chinthaka is his alleged involvement with a controversial cricket league held in Sri Lanka last year, through its various team owners, in selecting players for their teams for irregular financial gains.
For the unversed, Cricket Age had exposed Chinthaka’s highly suspicious act in July 2020 itself. In an exclusive story on 7 July 2020, Cricket Age had exposed that Chinthaka and Jagath Jayasundara – transport coordinator, SLC – were found to be involved in a scraped Non-affiliated PDC league.
The league was announced in the third week of June, stating that it would be starting on June 25. The unknown organizers of the 12-day-long tournament, which was said to be played at the historic and world heritage site Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, had even claimed that former cricketers including the likes of Ajantha Mendis, Chamara Silva, Nuwan Kulasekara, Asela Gunarathna, Dhammika Prasad, Sachithra Senanayake, Chamara Kapugedra, Thilan Thushara and Ishara Amerasinghe would be playing in the league.
However, on June 23, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) had announced that none of the contracted players of the SLC sought permission to take part in the League. The SLC further declared that the said T10 League is not endorsed by the cricket board.
“Sri Lanka Cricket wishes to announce that none of the contracted players of the board have sought permission to take part in a contest PDC T10 League nor Sri Lanka Cricket has endorsed a tournament called PDC T10 League” SLC had said in a media statement.
The exclusive report had further added that both Jayanath and Jayasundara were actively involved in the PDG league along with the main mastermind Alex Nishantha, who was associated with Sri Lanka cricket in past as one of the district coach and was talking to majority of former players and was approaching them to play in the league, on the behalf of some unknown Indians. The SLC top brass had also some suspicion about both them, that led the board to take a decision to not involve them in the preparation of the upcoming Lanka Premier League (LPL).
“A directive was given to the Head of Domestic Cricket Chinthaka Edirimanne to not involve Jayanath in the LPL preparation, after receiving some complaint about him” a top SLC official had told Cricket Age.
Jayanath, a controversial figure in Sri Lanka cricket, was taken in police custody in 2015 for cheating women’s, taking money from them by promising them to give job in South Korea.
Back then, following Cricket Age expose, the SLC had initiated the Inquiry and it was submitted to Incompetent board CEO Ashley De Silva also. However, as it is always a norm with SLC, outcome of that report was never made public!
“Even after repetitive proven offences, Chinthaka always managed to get scot free as he knows the inside truth of the few top board officials regarding their involvement in suspicious activities. That’s why, he always used those proofs against top people to safeguard himself. Instead of focusing on cathing these small fishes, if ACU officials seriously investigate this nexus, many top people in Sri Lanka Cricket will be exposed” an insider at SLC told Cricket Age on Friday (May 30).
