“We don’t go by speculation or what any newspaper wants to say. We don’t want to go by such reports. The ACSU has not reported any such involvement of any player. We can’t go by speculation. This has not been brought to our notice by the anti-corruption unit of the ICC. There is no evidence against any Sri Lankan player,” SLC chief executive Ajith Jayasekara stated in a press release.
The SLC report, the newspaper claimed, was filed by the team manager after captain Kumar Sangakkara passed on suspicions among teammates that Dilshan had been seen with the bookie during World Twenty20, in England, in June last year.
“The player concerned has been under the ICC’s scanner since the World Twenty20, in England, in 2009,” it said. Sri Lanka Cricket, the report added, had reportedly kept the entire matter away from the public spotlight though Dilshan has been investigated by the Sri Lankan police. No charges, though, was laid on Dilshan by the police.
“There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of Dilshan. The Sri Lankans followed the ICC’s protocol to the letter, reporting the alleged incident as soon as it was made known to the team management,” the report said.
In Colombo, Sangakkara rubbished the report and said none of his teammates were suspected of “fraternising with shady characters”. “All these stories going around about Dilshan are absolutely baseless. No Sri Lankan player, to my knowledge, is suspected of fraternising with bookies by their teammates, by the team management and the Sri Lankan cricket Board. As far as I know there was no report to SLC or the ACSU,” Sangakkara said.
Sangakkara said he had never passed on information of any suspicious activity by any of his teammates to the management. “I have never reported against any player specifically. All the players are very open in communicating with me and team management. No one, including me, have voiced our suspicion over any of our teammates at any time, nor reported specifically to the team manager or SLC,” he asserted.
“If there is any report of any suspicion on any player, then it is better to ask the SLC and the team management about that… But as far as I know, there is no such thing,” he said. Sangakkara also ruled out any Lankan player intentionally mixing up with bookie.
“None of the players, to my knowledge, have fraternised with any of these shady characters. The only thing is you never know who is sitting at the chair next to you or who is taking photograph with you at a hotel or somewhere,” he said.
The Dilshan-revelation came at a time when world cricket has been engulfed with a spot-fixing scandal involving Pakistan Test captain Salman Butt, Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Aamer.
The trio were suspended by the ICC and interrogated by the Scotland Yard after theNews of the World claimed in a sting operation that they took bribe from a bookie to bowl deliberate no balls during a Test match against England, at Lord’s, two weeks ago.
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