India pledges to support SL Cricket combat corruption

Petroleum Resources Development Minister Arjuna Ranatunga – Pic by Sameera Wijesinghe

By Charumini de Silva

India is willing to help Sri Lanka investigate and root out cricket corruption in the country, Arjuna Ranatunga has revealed, noting that he has taken his request to the top of India’s Government. 

“Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and I appealed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for their assistance to investigate and punish those involved in spot fixing and match fixing,” the former Sri Lankan Captain told journalists in Colombo yesterday

“The Indian Prime Minister immediately got me connected to their Cricket Authority officials, particularly to Senior Minister Arjun Jaitley (former Indian cricketer) and they agreed to support us in this endeavour.”

Ranatunga added that India’s Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) had been successfully investigating corruption in their systems and that Sri Lanka was keen on utilising their expertise in tackling similar issues. “Match fixing and spot fixing is beyond cricketers. There are so many other gamblers involved in this. We need to find the root cause for this menace and bring them to the book,” he stressed.

Ranatunga also believes that the lack of legislation in place to adequately punish those found guilty of such crimes is another factor that policymakers need to address immediately.

“At present, we don’t have the right legislation in place to punish them. The current Sports Minister is keen on introducing it.”

He also called on the relevant authorities to bring in a new constitution for Sri Lanka Cricket before its election next year, insisting that if not the same ‘crooks’ would continue to be elected to the Board.

“You need to change the constitution before going for the election, there is no other option. You won’t get rid of the crooks in the system otherwise. If the Constitution remains the same, we cannot expect a positive change in this mafia,” he added.

Ranatunga highlighted that in India there are only 30 voting clubs, Australia and New Zealand around 20, while in Sri Lanka it is as high as 140.

“It is a mafia. Two votes are given to clubs which don’t have a cricket team or a ground. Unfortunately, our Yahapalana (good governance) Government has also overlooked in addressing this matter,” Ranatunga said.

Noting that the Sports Minister Faiszer Mustapha was keen on bringing in changes to the Constitution, Ranatunga admitted that he was not certain if the Minister had the capacity to do so alone.