Ex-SL all-rounder faces fresh corruption charges

Published April 5, 2019
Former Sri Lanka international Dilhara Lokuhettige has been charged with three counts of breaching the International Cricket Council (ICC)’s anti-corruption code, the sport’s governing body said on Thursday. — Photo courtesy ICC/File
Former Sri Lanka international Dilhara Lokuhettige has been charged with three counts of breaching the International Cricket Council (ICC)’s anti-corruption code, the sport’s governing body said on Thursday. — Photo courtesy ICC/File

DUBAI: Former Sri Lanka international Dilhara Lokuhettige has been charged with three counts of breaching the International Cricket Council (ICC)’s anti-corruption code, the sport’s governing body said on Thursday.

The charges against the bowling all-rounder include being party to an effort to fix the result or progress of an international match, and directly soliciting, inducing, enticing or encouraging a player to do the same, it said.

The 38-year-old Lokuhettige, who played nine One-day Internationals and two Twenty20 Internationals for Sri Lanka and suspended since November over alleged match fixing at the 2017 inaugural T10 league in Sharjah, has been charged for similar offences relating to that league last year.

“He was provisionally suspended by the ICC, which had been appointed by the Emirates Cricket Board as its designated anti-corruption official,” the ICC said in a statement. “That provisional suspension remains in full force and effect and he has additionally been provisionally suspended under the ICC Code pending the determination of these new charges.”

No details were given of the matches involved.

Lokuhettige had 14 days to respond to the new charges, the ICC added. Sri Lanka Cricket has been thrown into turmoil as the ICC continues to investigate corruption allegations in the island nation.

Read:Sri Lanka cricket rated most corrupt by ICC: minister

In January, the ICC granted Sri Lankan cricketers a 15-day amnesty to report previously undisclosed information relating to corruption in the sport.

It was followed by former captain and chairman of selectors Sanath Jayasuriya being handed a two-year ban for refusing to cooperate with any investigation conducted by its anti-corruption unit.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2019

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