The International Cricket Council’s anti-corruption unit has been monitoring the activities of a leading Sri Lanka player since the World Twenty20 in England last year after team-mates became increasingly unsettled by his late-night fraternising with a man they believed to be an illegal bookmaker. They passed on their concerns to the captain, Kumar Sangakkara, who followed ICC protocol by contacting the anti-corruption unit.
The player has since been investigated by Sri Lankan police, although no charges have been laid; officials from the ICC’s anti-corruption unit are said to be dismayed at the lack of progress. Haroon Lorgat, the ICC’s chief executive, has admitted to a general sense of frustration, saying: “The [anti-corruption unit’s] working is not that of a policing agency or a newspaper. They have no power to arrest or seize, or carry out a sting operation.”
Getting international players to question the honesty of one of their own team-mates is a considerable challenge, but it is essential if the ICC is to root out corruption. England’s one-day captain, Paul Collingwood, admitted ahead of today’s Twenty20 international in Cardiff the difficulty faced by players in casting aside dressing-room loyalties by reporting a team-mate suspected of involvement with a betting scam.
The Guardian
