Sri Lanka batsman Mahela Jayawardene has taken legal advice over doubts raised on a state-run TV channel about the way he and another batsman performed in the World Cup defeat by Pakistan.
Sri Lanka, who are one of the favorites to win the tournament, lost Saturday’s Pakistan game by 11 runs as Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera were out for just two runs and one run respectively when the team was trying to accelerate the run rate against the powerful Pakistan bowling.
State-owned Independent Television Network (ITN), in an analytical documentary aired on Sunday, criticized several Sri Lankan players, including Jayawardene and Samaraweera, for their poor performance.
Photo: AFP
Jayawardene when asked about the allegations before the Kenya match said he had consulted his lawyers over the matter.
“The lawyers will decide what proper course of action should be taken,” he told reporters.
ITN also accused a businessman of betting 2 million rupees (US$18,053) on Pakistan’s victory without giving further details.
In a statement, Sri Lanka Cricket later condemned the program for “carrying a story that is baseless and thereby demoralizing our players during the ongoing World Cup.”
“Sri Lanka Cricket will be taking this matter up with the relevant authorities of this channel, based on the fact that this channel has brought great distress to two of our national cricketers who have served Sri Lanka Cricket with honor and dignity throughout their illustrious careers so far,” the cricket body said.
The ITN, in its Vimasuma (inquiry) program, accused both Jayawardene and Samaraweera of changing the game, which otherwise Sri Lanka would have won.
“We are now in second thoughts whether Mahela and Thilan actually ‘changed the game,’” the narrator of the program said, adding that if both had scored 30 runs together, Sri Lanka would have won.
The ITN later issued a statement saying: “We wish to express our deep concern if the contents of the program had hurt both of them or any other party.”
“Knowing Mahela and Thilan Samaraweera, we have no reason to doubt their integrity,” Sri Lanka’s team captain, Anura Tennekoon, told reporters after the Kenya match, which Sri Lanka won by nine wickets.
“Therefore we thought that it was not necessary to conduct an inquiry. ICC has a right to call for an inquiry, if they want,” Tennekoon said.
Compared with their Asian neighbors, the 1996 World Cup champions have been relatively free from corruption and match-fixing scandals.
Last month, three Pakistan players were banned for a minimum of five years over allegations that they deliberately bowled no-balls (spot-fixing) against England last August.
That case has now been taken to sport’s highest court of appeal, the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The game’s governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), told reporters on Tuesday that each of the 49 matches at the World Cup were “to some extent” scrutinized by an anti-corruption unit.
A spokesman explained that unless the unit, which keeps its deliberations secret, planned action against a team or individual then the ICC itself would not be informed.
Also on Tuesday, an agency story suggesting that Australia were under investigation for slow scoring in a win against Zimbabwe was dismissed by team officials as “laughable.”
The ICC told reporters they had heard nothing suggesting anything untoward.
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