Sanath Jayasuriya, former captain, World Cup winner and one of Sri Lanka’s most popular personalities, has been slapped with a two-year ban by the ICC’s anti-corruption unit for refusing to co-operate with investigations concerning corruption in the island nation. As a result and effective immediately, Jayasuriya cannot take part in any cricket-related activity until 2021.
Last October, Jayasuriya was charged by the ACU with two counts of breaching the ICC anti-corruption code. The charges included refusal to cooperate with an ACU investigation, obstructing or delaying the investigation including concealing, tampering with or destroying any documentation or other information which may be relevant.
Jayasuriya also refused to hand over the mobile phones he had been using during the investigation, something the ACU had specifically asked him to do. A day after the ACU charged him, Jayasuriya released a spublic statement, saying he had always conducted himself with “transparency and integrity” and that he had not been involved in any “corrupt activity” including “match-fixing, pitch-fixing”.
The charge came on the back of a year-long investigation in Sri Lanka, where the ACU said corruption had become an inherent part of the system. Alex Marshall, the ACU’s general manager, told ESPNcricinfo that the extensive investigation was a serious attempt to break the cycle of corruption that had enveloped Sri Lanka cricket.
