Did batting changes, behavior arouse ICC’s suspicion?

By Bipin Dani

Former Sri Lanka chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya, who has been charged by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for not cooperating with its investigation, may have drawn the attention of the ICC Anti-Corruption (ACU) by his behavior during one of the three ODIs played against Zimbabwe that were played at the Hambantota in 2017.

It is learnt that during one of the ODIs Jayasuriya had been keen to change the batting order which, coupled with his behavior, may have appeared suspicious to ICC ACU officials.

"As a (chief) selector he had all the rights to suggest to the captain but his movement at the stadium was suspicious. He was on phone all the time and that made the investigators doubt his intentions," sources told this reporter on condition of anonymity.

This was recorded by the ICC's Anti-Corruption Manager and was also "supported" by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) official, it is also learnt.

Jayasuriya has now appointed a lawyer to file his reply.

"If he is clean maybe he should have cooperated with the investigators. Now his lawyer will try to find loop-holes in the case and advise him to file the reply accordingly," the former SLC official said.

"On the pretext of personal details and video on his phone, he refused to share his mobile with the investigators. The ICC investigators would not have been interested in his personal materials (even if they were shared) as far as they were not related to the game’s corrupt activities," the source further added. 

Meanwhile, Daily Mirror also spoke to Lakshman de Silva, the former Acnti-Corruption Officer at SLC, who refused to comment or confirm these details, but he said he was happy to see the efforts of the ICC in cleaning up the game.

"I appreciate the efforts by the ICC and will be good if the image of the game is not tarnished," he said.   

Jayasuriya was charged on two counts by the ICC, essentially for his non-compliance in investigations and for withholding information, which he will have 14 days to respond to.

It was reported that Jayasuriya had lied about the number of phones he had in his possession and had also destroyed one of his SIM cards and also disposed the mobile phone.

Once the news about the ICC charges were made public, Jayasuriya was not reachable over mobile phone. 

It’s not clear why Jayasuriya, who was Sri Lanka’s nominee on the technical committee for the recently concluded Asia Cup, left Dubai some days before the September 28 final.