Sri Lankan cricketer amongst eight charged by ICC for T10 match-fixing

Saliya Saman

One cricketer from Sri Lanka is among eight players, officials and team owners charged with breaching various counts of the ICC Anti-Corruption Code during the T10 League.

The charges are in relation to the 2021 Abu Dhabi T10 League. The said tournament took place between 19 November 2021 and 4 December 2021. Six teams played in the tournament. They pertain to attempts made to corrupt the matches in the league. These attempts were disrupted. ECB appointed ICC as the Designated Anti-Corruption Official (DACO) for the purposes of the ECB’s Code during the tournament. Thus, ICC are issuing these charges on the ECB’s behalf.

The Sri Lankan player charged is Saliya Saman, a 37-year-old all-rounder with 3662 runs (avg. 27.95) and 231 wickets (avg. 25.92) from 101 first-class matches who represented Sri Lanka and U-17 and U-19 cricket and played for Galle CC, Ragama CC, Saracens SC and Lankan CC, and in numerous leagues.

Saman’s charges are;  

• Article 2.1.1 - Being party to an attempt to fix, contrive or influence improperly matches or aspects of matches in the Abu Dhabi T10 2021.
• Article 2.1.3 - Offering a Reward to another Participant in exchange for that player engaging in Corrupt Conduct under the Code.
• Article 2.1.4 - Directly or indirectly soliciting, inducing, enticing, instructing, persuading, encouraging or intentionally facilitating any Participant to breach Code Article 2.1.

Others charged are Bangladesh cricketer Nasir Hossain, domestic player Rizwan Javed, Batting Coach Ashar Zaidi, Assistant Coach Sunny Dhillon, Team Manager Shadab Ahamed, Co-owner of a team Krishan Kumar Chaudhary, and Co-owner of a team Parag Sanghvi.

Six of the charged – Krishan Kumar Chaudhary, Parag Sanghvi, Azhar Zaidi, Rizwan Javed, Saliya Saman and Sunny Dhillon – have been provisionally suspended and all have 14 days from 19 September 2023 to respond to the charges.