Cricket: ICC Anti-Corruption sleuths questions SLC official

Just days after former national fast-bowler turned coach Nuwan Zoysa was slapped with a six-year ban for three offence under its anti-corruption code, the anti-corruption sleuths of the International Cricket Council (ICC) started a fresh probe this week by questioning a senior official of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).

According to reports, Chinthaka Jayanath, SLC's Assistant Manager Tournament, was questioned for several hours in a leading hotel in Colombo. 

His two mobile phones were taken into custody for the purpose of data analysis. 

He has not yet being served charges by the investigators, thus preventing SLC from taking any action.

"I have instructed him to be transferred to a different section immediately as a precaution. But since there’s no charge sheet, we cannot do anything else. We will monitor the situation," said Prof. Arjun de Silva, Chairman of the SLC Management Committee.

Jayanath plays an important role in as the Assistant Manager Tournament and is the Board’s statistician. 

His area of responsibilities are scheduling of all local tournaments, coordination of all tournaments including venue visits, preparation of budgets in consultation with the Tournament Manager/other departments, maintenance of a data base of players / clubs and data management of matches.

In 2019, Sri Lanka became the first South Asian nation to criminalize several offences related to match-fixing. 

Offenders could face up to 10 years' jail and fines of up to Rs. 100 million for match-fixing under the new laws.