Sri Lanka seeks Indian help in match fixing probe
Sri Lanka has asked India to help probe allegations that World Cup-winning skipper Arjuna Ranatunga and his deputy Aravinda de Silva were involved in match fixing, officials said Thursday.
Sri Lanka's Board of Control for Cricket (BCCSL) asked its Indian counterpart for copies of a report published Wednesday by the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that probed corruption in cricket.
"The BCCSL requires to obtain immediately a copy of the 162-page report and relevant authenticated transcripts of evidence," said Sri Lanka's cricket chief Thilanga Sumathipala in a letter to Indian cricket chief A. C. Muthiah.
Sri Lanka's Ranatunga, 36, who retired from international cricket in August, said he had never had any dealings with bookmakers nor was he ever offered money to throw matches.
"Had any offer of a bribe been made to me at any time I would have promptly reported the matter to the appropriate authorities," Ranatunga said in a one-paragraph statement issued here Wednesday.
He was reacting to allegations in India that he and his deputy, Aravinda de Silva, accepted bribes to fix matches.
"The references to me in the Indian newspaper articles are entirely false," he said. There was no immediate reaction from de Silva, who is still playing Test cricket for Sri Lanka.
A bookmaker, Mukesh Gupta, had claimed in a testimony published in an Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) report that Ranatunga and De Silva helped him fix an Indian victory in the Lucknow Test in 1994.
Gupta had said de Silva was paid 15,000 dollars, but it was not immediately clear if there were any direct allegations against Ranatunga, who led Sri Lanka to World Cup victory in 1996.
Sumathipala said the India report had not made it clear which of the Sri Lankan players had taken money or turned down offers of bribes.
"The two cricketeres are highly respected and loved by the Sri Lankan public and the BCCSL is quite concerned to have this matter expeditiously and correctly examined," Sumathipala said.
The CBI said Gupta, a Delhi-based jeweller, had told investigators he had paid 20,000 dollars to Australia's Mark Waugh for weather, team and pitch information.
But the report did not say how much team-mate Shane Warne was allegedly 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."
Some of the alleged bribing of players was said to have taken place in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka's cricket board in July set up an independent panel to investigate and prevent match-fixing, which 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 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
