Sanath Jayasuriya has been charged with two counts of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code, and has been given 14 days from October 15 to respond.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has charged Sanath Jayasuriya with two counts of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code.
The charges relate to failure or refusal, to cooperate with any investigation carried out by the ACU, including failure to provide any information or documentation requested by the ACU and obstructing or delaying any investigation carried out by the ACU, including concealing, tampering with or destroying any documentation or other information that may be relevant.
According to an ICC statement Jayasuriya, the former Sri Lanka Cricket Chair of Selectors, has been charged with the following offences under the Code:
Article 2.4.6 – Failure or refusal, without compelling justification, to cooperate with any investigation carried out by the ACU, including failure to provide accurately and completely any information and/or documentation requested by the ACU as part of such investigation.
Article 2.4.7 – Obstructing or delaying any investigation that may be carried out by the ACU, including concealing, tampering with or destroying any documentation or other information that may be relevant to that investigation and/or that may be evidence or may lead to the discovery of evidence of corrupt conduct under the Anti-Corruption Code.
Sanath Jayasuriya was the former Chairman of the Sri Lanka Cricket Selection Committee, which resigned in September 2017. He had also served as the Chief Selector on a previous occasion from 2013 to 2015. Some media reports said that the charges against him are pertaining to incidents that took place during his second stint.
The ACU had recently visited Sri Lanka and had briefed President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Sports Minister Faiszer Mustapha about their ongoing investigations into serious allegations of corruption in cricket in the country.
However, Minister Faiszer Mustapha said in Parliament last week that the International Cricket Council (ICC) Anti-Corruption Unit had only cautioned that as the Sri Lankan team consists of all young players, they are more vulnerable to being exposed to match related crimes, but had not mentioned any of the cricketers specifically.
He said the ICC had had not mentioned names of any cricketer in the Sri Lankan cricket squad in its detailed briefing handed over to President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and himself on the serious allegations of corruption in cricket in the country. Meanwhile, when contacted by the Daily News, Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva said he was unaware of Jayasuriya’s response and said that he too was only aware of the charges leveled by the ACU.