SLC suspends individuals implicated in pitch-fixing

SLC Vice President Pillar Head of Domestic Cricket Mohan de Silva (second from left) address the media yesterday. Others from left are SLC Anticorruption and Security Manager Ayesh Weerakkody, Secretary Air Commodore Roshan Biyanwila 

and CEO Ashley de Silva – Pic by Lasantha Kumara

By Madushka Balasuriya

Sri Lanka Cricket has suspended the individuals implicated in an Al Jazeera documentary of pitch-fixing two Test matches in Galle over the last two years, pending the outcome of an International Cricket Council investigation.

SLC has, for the time being, suspended three individuals - Tharanga Indika, Tharindu Mendis,  and Jeewantha Kulatunga - who are under investigation by the ICC, and has promised to cooperate fully with the ICC investigation. 

While this means that the board cannot conduct parallel inquiries of their own, as per the ICC’s request, they have outsourced domestic investigations to the Police Criminal Investigation Department.

“We have been in constant touch with the ICC and their corruption officers,” said SLC CEO Ashley De Silva. “When we got to know about the allegations through media reports, we immediately contacted them saying that we’d give them our fullest cooperation. They have also indicated to us not to carry out any domestic inquiries because there is a protocol at ICC that needs to be followed. When there is something related to international cricket, the inquiry will be carried out only by the ICC, where we only provide them with the required information. But, we have asked the CID to look into to the matter.” 

Indika, who is Assistant Manager at Galle International stadium, is shown in the documentary “Cricket’s match-fixers” as claiming to have doctored pitches in a 2016 Test match against Australia and a 2017 Test against India, and divulging plans to do the same in a Test match against England later this year. Mendis and Kulatunga, coaches at the district and provincial level, respectively, are also under suspicion having been identified in the investigative documentary.

“That was the first thing we did - the individuals that were named in the Al Jazeera documentary have been suspended, effective immediately,” stated De Silva.

Meanwhile, a fourth individual, Harsha Munasinghe, is set to be transferred from his post as Stadium Manager at the Galle stadium despite not being directly implicated in the Al Jazeera documentary

“We’re doing a clean-up in Galle, and we’re taking steps to bring in a new set of people ahead of the South Africa tour [in July],” SLC Vice President Mohan De Silva told Daily FT.

However, SLC Head Curator Godfrey Dabrera, who overlooks SLC’s international venues and facilities, has not been suspended as “no official inquiry has been conducted as yet into the culpability of anyone apart from those who have been named”. Dabrera has previously denied the veracity of the claims made by Indika in the documentary, pointing out how Indika was not considered a curator by SLC and that SLC-certified curators overlook all work on the pitch.

SLC also stopped short of outright denying the allegations of the Galle pitches in question being doctored, recalling how no issues had been flagged at the time.

“If there was anything wrong with the pitch itself, we would have probably been notified right after the matches had taken place,” noted De Silva. The pitch for the India Test in 2017 had been rated as “very good” by the ICC, while the pitch for the 2016 Test against Australia was rated “below average” but not bad enough to warrant any sort of reprimand.

Nishantha goes to court to stop Thilanga from contesting

Former Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) Board General Secretary Nishantha Ranatunga yesterday filed a petition in court seeking an injunction to prevent Thilanga Sumathipala from contesting the Sri Lanka Cricket board elections.

Ranatunga, who is also contesting for the post of President at the elections scheduled to be held this week, says Sumathipala is not qualified to hold the post of President.

Ranatunga, the younger brother of World Cup-winning former Sri Lanka Captain Arjuna, was SLC secretary from 2009 to 2015.  (Colombo Gazette)