COLOMBO: Three male officials have been identified in the sex bribe scandal that rocked Sri Lankan women’s cricket but there are no grounds or evidence to justify criminal proceedings against them, the country’s cricket board said on Thursday.

Sri Lanka’s sports ministry last week revealed an investigation had found that members of the national women’s team had been forced to perform sexual favours for officials in order to earn or keep their places in the squad.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said it has received the report which mentions cases of sexual harassment in 2013 and 2014 and much of it was corroborated in another report the board had separately commissioned.

“...both reports have concluded that, there have been a few incidents of sexual harassment which were committed by two male officials but that there was no evidence of any physical intimacy and that, there were no grounds to justify criminal proceedings,” the SLC said in a statement.

Both the reports also identified a third male official for ‘improper conduct’ which did not amount to sexual harassment, the statement read.

“Sri Lanka Cricket wishes to state that, all three officials who were identified in the reports no longer function in their previous positions since their contracts were not renewed when they ended in April this year,” it added.

SLC said there were no allegations against any of the coaches or the selectors but admitted to flaws in its system and promised to rectify them.

“Sri Lanka Cricket is very concerned by the fact that, both reports have highlighted the unsatisfactory situation that prevailed in the selection and other aspects relating to women’s cricket and widely prevalent perceptions of favouritism and bias.”

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2015

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