ICC SHOULD PROBE ZIMBABWE TOUR OF SRI LANKA– Arjuna

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pariah
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ICC SHOULD PROBE ZIMBABWE TOUR OF SRI LANKA– Arjuna

Post by pariah »

http://www.ceylontoday.lk/print20170401 ... p?id=26800
WITH RAVI LADDUWAHETTY

Skipper of the 1996 Wills World Cup winning Sri Lankan Cricket team – turned Petroleum Industries Minister, Arjuna Ranatunga, said on Tuesday night that the International Cricket Council should probe the recently concluded Zimbabwe Cricket Tour of Sri Lanka. He said he had heard reports of certain suspicious individuals walking into the Sri Lanka dressing room, though he said that he did not know what the deliberations were. "It is up to the ICC, which has all the tapes of the recorded conversations," he said.

Minister Ranatunga made these remarks to Ceylon Today in the company of a team of visiting Indian Sports Editors from the Hindu, the Deccan Herald and Wisden India who are in Sri Lanka for the ongoing Sri Lanka Test, ODI and T-20 series, at his ministry office in Dematagoda.

He also queried as to how Sri Lanka Cricket could progress when the Chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket, Thilanga Sumathipala, had direct conflict of interest with his family businesses comprising betting and gaming and also media. "This is indeed funny and it is also surprising how the ICC is not uttering a whimper against any of these practices!" he exclaimed.

He also said it was sad that cricket administration was so corrupt that his own club SSC, which he captained before captaining Sri Lanka to the World Cup win, also did not vote for him (Ranatunga) but for Sumathipala when it came to the SLC Presidency!

He also said he was in the commentary box with Kapil Dev during the India - Sri Lanka 2011 World Cup final at the Whankade Stadium in Bombay, which India won, where there were lots of suspicions about the manner in which some players acted.

"I am not taking the credit from India at all for winning the finals, but there were issues. I said that India had the best side and I have not said at any stage that there was match fixing. But, the ICC should investigate what happened with certain developments," he said.

He also said that the administrators should be patient with cricketers as some of them develop with the passage of time. He said, "Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu were both awful at the start, but they blossomed out to be among the best in the world."

"In proper cricket administration, one has to groom and nurture them, but you have to throw them into the deep end at the right time," he said.

He also said coaches should be consulted, but it should be the skipper who should be responsible for the selection of the team and held responsible for the performance of the team, whether good or bad.

He said the tragedy was that some players were thrown into the deep end even before they learnt to swim!

He also blamed the ICC for not taking action against agents of players, whom he said, ruined some players. This is a serious issue where the agents lead the players up the garden path and both the players and the managers get destroyed at the same time.

He also said that a large number of cricketers were selected and dumped. "There were at least 40 cricketers who were tried out and discarded," he said adding that none of that happened during his time.

"I batted at Number 5, Roshan (Mahanama) at 6 and Hashan (Tillekeratne) at 7 and we took all the pressure at that time," Ranatunga reminisced.

Ranatunga, a veteran of 93 Tests (5,105 Test runs) and 269 ODIs (7,456 runs), was endearingly dubbed Captain Cool by New Zealand Test Cricketer and subsequent Television Umpire John Wright, after a Sri Lanka-India ODI at the SSC which Sri Lanka won in a nail biting finish, where he was the unanimous choice for the Man of the Match Award. He also holds the fourth wicket partnership record of 240 runs with the incumbent Manager Asanka Gurusinha, where both scored centuries versus India at the SSC. While Arjuna scored 116, Asanka Gurusinha scored 135.

He also said that he had great admiration for two Asian Cricket captains who won the World Cup. "I was just 19 when Indian skipper Kapil Dev lifted the Cricket World Cup in 1983 beating "Super cat" Clive Lloyd's West Indians, depriving them of a hat-trick of World Cups in 1975, 1979 and nearly in 1983, and also Imran Khan Niazi when he beat England in the World Cup in Melbourne in December 1992. I thought as to why I, as the Sri Lankan captain, could not win a World Cup like them for whom I have the highest admiration."

Responding to a question as to how he rates current Indian skipper Virat Kohli in the light of his captaincy in his time, Ranatunga chuckled: "He is brash and aggressive right now. May be he will temper down in another five years. He has a long way to go before he comes to be in the mould of Indian greats like Kapil (Kapil Dev), Azhar (Mohamed Azharuddin) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni."

He also said he would like a role even now in developing school cricket, which he described as the best in the world. He has every right to say that. After all, he scored a record 12 centuries for Ananda College in 1979 under Thilan (Manjith) Wijesinghe, also Combined Schools skipper and later Board of Investment Chairman.

Also moot in this context is a sedate, match saving innings of 113 against Trinity at Asgiriya when enforced with the follow on, and with brother and opener, and later Sri Lanka opener Dhammika Ranatunga, was scared to open, unable to cope with the fierce pace of opening bowler and Trinity skipper Joseph (Ravi) Ratnayake, later vice captain to Arjuna's Sri Lanka Cricket XI.

pariah
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Re: ICC SHOULD PROBE ZIMBABWE TOUR OF SRI LANKA– Arjuna

Post by pariah »

Toiletgate rocks Lankan cricket?
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/170730/sports ... 52375.html
Has Lankan cricket opened another can of worms with the ‘Toiletgate’ — the latest to hit the beleaguered sporting nation?

The story goes to say that ICC anti-corruption sleuths had stormed into the toilet of the player’s dressing room looking for a device, after two senior national team players made a complaint during the ODI series against Zimbabwe.

As confirmed by a dressing-room insider to a former national player, two senior players had said that this player’s behaviour had raised suspicions and made them to complain to the relevant authorities.

The Sunday Times learns an investigation is underway now.

When the Sunday Times inquired about the incident from SLC Chief Executive Officer Ashley de Silva he said, “As far as we are concerned, we are not aware of any such incident, but these investigations are made independently by the ICC anti-corruption unit.”

At the same time there have been reverberations about certain individual who is reported to be a relative of SLC President Thilanga Sumathipala. The individual identified as Sampath Hettiarachchi has been attending team meetings during the Zimbabwe tour and subsequently barred from attending such meetings.

Ashley de Silva, however, denied any controversial aspect of the person.

De Silva said “Sampath Hettiarachchi is employed by the SLC and he is tipped to take over the SLC ‘brain centre’ which we will be commissioning soon. So to familiarise with his duties that he has to perform, he has to attend such meetings and at the same time no one has barred him from attending team meetings if and when necessary.”

This is the second occasion that the ICC anti-corruption sleuths have intervened in Sri Lanka this year. Earlier in March, at least one Sri Lanka national cricketer was interviewed by the ICC’s Anti-Corruption officials in the aftermath of Sri Lanka’s defeat to Bangladesh in the second Test at the P. Sara Oval.

However, the biggest scandal that rocked Sri Lanka cricket happened in 2010 when Sri Lanka off-spinner Suraj Randiv purposely delivered a no-ball to deprive Indian opener Virender Sehwag from scoring a certain century. The ball was hit for six, but the umpires signalled a no-ball.

Nevertheless Sri Lanka Cricket administration quickly intervened and doused the fire by imposing a one-match ban on Randiv and a heavy fine to senior player T.M. Dilshan who prompted the bowler to act in that manner. The then captain Kumar Sangakkara was also cautioned by the authorities.

pariah
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Re: ICC SHOULD PROBE ZIMBABWE TOUR OF SRI LANKA– Arjuna

Post by pariah »

I long raised my concern here about this tour, and the fact that the last SL investigation was buried by both SLC and ICC. Too much is at stake.

There is a desperate attempt to cover up everything which is why the South Africa domestic cricket matter was obviously staged and severe fines plans bans handed out to players who virtually didn't commit an actual crime beyond not reporting properly or fully.

It's common knowledge that plenty players international cricketers are approached, but either don't report at all, or don't disclose everything.

The strategy now is to identify certain instances of match-fixing, or match-fixing attempts in domestic cricket, and use those to blow them out of proportion and cover up instances of match-fixing in international cricket that may hurt the game.

It won't last because the same thing that happened to FIFA and Cycling will eventually happen to ICC, and huge chunks of the game will have to be written off the history books. You'll recall how Eddo Brandes feels about that win over Pakistan in his interview, since match-fixing was confirmed. It's all feels empty eventually.

The South African situation was very unique in the sense that there's no benefit or gain in match/spot-fixing here, and there was no clear intention to fix. Seems Gulam Bodi was picked given a list of likely targets, and they were careful to focus on senior/very old players nearing retirement not youngsters. He was a known joker so no one would really take him seriously, and from that "crime" of not taking him seriously and reporting fully, they'd be nabbed. A lot was happening in domestic cricket around the IPL, Pakistan, County cricket, plus Bangladesh domestic cricekt if I remember correctly, etc, and they needed something to deflect. This one in SA was well planned and staged. Unfortunately, despite the insanely overstated length of bans, the story hasn't gained traction. Because of that they will have to deal with the SL situation or I honestly can't see another international cricekter banned for a very long time with this cover-up doing the rounds pretty much common knowledge high in the hierarchy. No cricket board will allow any of their players to be banned if an "investigation" finds nothing, and no one gets punished.

I'm already seeing signs of this kind of push back from Nasir Jamshed, and also some legends getting behind him and speaking for him. Cricket is taking an ugly turn.

Mueddie28
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Re: ICC SHOULD PROBE ZIMBABWE TOUR OF SRI LANKA– Arjuna

Post by Mueddie28 »

They should probe what India is doing to them too

pariah
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Re: ICC SHOULD PROBE ZIMBABWE TOUR OF SRI LANKA– Arjuna

Post by pariah »

ICC launches corruption probe in Sri Lanka
Andrew Fidel Fernando
http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/ ... -sri-lanka
The ICC has confirmed its Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) has opened an investigation in Sri Lanka, less than 48 hours after 40 top cricketers petitioned Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to launch an inquiry into corruption allegations.

On Friday, SLC confirmed it had received a letter signed by national players, including captains Dinesh Chandimal and Upul Tharanga, urging the board to probe the "baseless allegations" the players claim were made by former cricketer and selector Pramodya Wickramasinghe. The board, however, stopped short of stating it would launch the probe, and merely recounted the current players' dismay at having their integrity questioned. But the ICC itself has now publicly established ACU officers have recently visited Sri Lanka in relation to an investigation.

"The ICC Anti-Corruption Unit works to uphold integrity in cricket and this includes conducting investigations where there are reasonable grounds to do so," Alex Marshall, the ICC's General Manager - ACU, said. "There is currently an ACU investigation underway in Sri Lanka. Naturally, as part of this, we are talking to a number of people."

There have been rumours in Sri Lanka about the nature of play in a particular international match for several weeks, but no evidence of any nature has been produced, or even pointed to.

And while some present cricketers claim Wickramasinghe made wild allegations against them, Wickramasinghe himself has more recently suggested that he was only making note of allegations that were already in circulation.

Nevertheless, Wickramasinghe has been cast as the source of these allegations. SLC said the players had expressed "profound shock and displeasure at a former national cricketer and selector making such serious allegations," and that SLC should "initiate an immediate inquiry by summoning Wickramasinghe in fairness to their good names that have been slandered by such diabolic [sic.] allegations."

Whatever the case, it is uncommon for the ICC to comment on ongoing ACU investigations as they have on this occasion.

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