Sri Lanka police arrested the Indian co-owner of a Lanka Premier League (LPL) team on Friday, hours before the tournament was due to begin, on suspicion of trying to bribe a player.

The suspect, identified as Manjot Kalra, was arrested at a hotel in Colombo as he was “about to pay” a player 9.5 million rupees ($28,700), inspector Supun Vidanage of the Sports Investigation Unit said.

He said Kalra would be produced before a magistrate soon.

The player had alerted police when he was first approached about 10 days earlier, Vidanage said, without naming him.

The sixth edition of the T20 domestic tournament is set to open on Friday night in capital Colombo with a match between the Jaffna and Galle teams.

Kalra is a co-owner of the Jaffna team.

The tournament has been marred by allegations of corruption.

In January, a Sri Lankan court handed the British owner of an LPL team a four-year suspended sentence over match-fixing.

Bangladesh-born Tamim Rahman, owner of Dambulla Thunders, admitted to attempting to influence a player and organise betting.

Rahman was handed a four-year jail term, suspended for five years. He was also fined 24 million rupees.

The conviction was in line with a strict 2019 law aimed at preventing corruption in sports in Sri Lanka.