Lanka board dismayed
over charges
Sri Lanka's cricket authorities expressed dismay over allegations that the country's World Cup-winning skipper Arjuna Ranatunga and his deputy Aravinda de Silva accepted bribes to fix matches.
Indian bookmaker Mukesh Gupta has claimed in his testimony to the Central Bureau of Investigation that Ranatunga and DeSilva helped him fix an Indian victory in the Lucknow Test in 1994.
Gupta had said that DeSilva was paid 15,000 dollars, but it is not immediately clear if there were any direct allegations against Ranatunga, who led Sri Lanka to a World Cup victory against Australia in 1996.
"Both players are now seeking legal advise on a statement they will be issuing later on Wednesday," a cricket board official said. "The allegations coming from a questionable character lacks credibility."
The CBI said Gupta, a Delhi-based jeweller, had told investigators that he had paid 20,000 dollars to Australia's Mark Waugh for weather, team and pitch information. But the report does not say how much teammate Shane Warne was paid.
Disgraced former South African captain Hansie Cronje told the South African King commission earlier this year that Gupta had been introduced to him by former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin during the series in India in 1996. The CBI report says Gupta admitted paying 40,000 dollars to Cronje on the third day of the Kanpur Test to ensure a "South African loss and as an investment for future."
Sri Lanka's cricket board in July set up of an independent panel to investigate and prevent match-fixing that is plaguing the sport world-wide.
The board appointed a five-member panel headed by a retired supreme court judge to draft a code of conduct for players.
Sri Lanka's Cricket Board president Thilanga Sumathipala said at the time that his country had been spared allegations of match fixing but he wanted the panel to recommend ways and means to ensure that it did not creep into the game here.
"We want to have a committee that will make recommendations and we hope to publish them and also go to the ICC and ask them to adopt such systems to prevent the fraud of match-fixing," Sumathipala said.
Mail Cricket Editor
