Former Sri Lanka captain to blow lid on fixing

Associated Press | The Hindu
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Former Sri Lanka test captain Hashan Tillakaratne said on Tuesday he will tell the International Cricket Council that matches were fixed during his career.

Tillakaratne, a politician in Sri Lanka’s opposition, said he will reveal the names of those involved in fixing matches “at the appropriate time.”

Tillakaratne told a television program earlier this month that match fixing has been rampant in Sri Lanka since 1992, then on Tuesday made a statement reaffirming his allegations to the Western Provincial Council, where he is elected to office.

“I made a statement to the provincial council, I said that I still maintain my stand on the (match fixing) allegations,” said Tillakaratne, who declined to reveal the names of those involved following legal advise.

“After I came out with these allegations I have been getting a lot of nuisance calls, death threats, but definitely I will expose all those who are involved in a time to come,” he said.

When asked why he has not followed the established procedure of working with the ICC’s anti-corruption unit, Tillakaratne said “I will do that in the days to come.

Sri Lanka Cricket expressed concern over the allegations and called for “concrete evidence” to substantiate them.

“We also wish to state that we find it extremely strange that these so called ‘revelations’ are being made so many years after the alleged misdeeds,” the national cricket board said in a statement on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka Cricket said it had discussed the matter with Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage, who has ordered a police inquiry into the allegations.

Tillakaratne said he has been reluctant voice his allegations previously for fear of his safety.

Several international players including South Africa’s Hansie Cronje, India’s Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja, and Pakistan’s Salim Malik have been found guilty of match fixing and served bans in the past decade. No Sri Lankan player has yet been seriously investigated.

Most recently, Pakistani players Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir received bans of five years or more earlier this year after being found guilty by the ICC for bowling no-balls at predetermined times in a test last year against England to fix spot-betting markets.

Tillakaratne played 83 tests for Sri Lanka from 1989 to 2004, scoring 4,545 runs with 11 centuries. He scored 3,789 one-day runs from 200 matches between 1986 and 2003. He was also a member of the country’s only World Cup-winning team in 1996.

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