Sri Lanka is again in the thick of an anti-corruption investigation made by the ICC ACU[/caption]
The International Cricket Council Anti Corruption Unit (ICC ACU) officials, who have allegedly been staying in a leading Colombo hotel for about three weeks now, have yesterday (29) questioned one of the Assistant Managers of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) after calling the official to their office.
The other allegations against the said officials are said to be involving various types of match-fixing, particularly in Sri Lanka domestic cricket.
He has also been charged, it is alleged, for manipulating the local arm of one of the most prestigious cricket websites in the world today and has also received bribes allegedly from various players for doctoring player information and statistics in that website.
The same official has given wrong information with regard to player stats when national selectors formally sought such information from him, at times allegedly providing the selectors with puffed up figures of those players while conniving with the players misleading the selections.
Will there be more “arrests” to be made following yesterday’s incident?
“Some other major arrests are likely to take place in the next 48 hours by those ICC (ACU) officials who are now in Colombo,” one of the leading officials, who is privy to the development, told the Morning Sports.
He further added, requesting anonymity, that many SLC officials feel pressure, uncertainty and fear that the “arrested” SLC Assistant Manager would divulge sensitive information that may put them too in danger.
It is also reported that some such SLC officials who are currently at Pallekele on duty, for the second Test between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, had even switched off their mobile phones probably to get away from any communication from Colombo last afternoon.
Our effort to contact authorities of the current Cricket Administrative Committee to get to know their views and reaction on the said “arrest” proved futile yesterday.
The ICC anti-corruption officials usually make their arrests or conduct their interrogations of suspects in a country in consultation with the police chief of that respective country and also with the assistance of a team of policemen assigned to them by the police department.