Sanath Jayasuriya has been charged with two counts of breaching the ICC’s anti-corruption code.
The charges relate to failure or refusal to cooperate with an Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) investigation and obstructing or delaying an investigation, including concealing, tampering with or destroying any documentation or other information which may be relevant.
Jayasuriya, a former Sri Lanka captain, was chairman of selectors until he and his committee resigned in September 2017, following widespread criticism of the committee’s performance. He had also been chief selector in a previous two-year stint, that ran from early 2013 to the end of the 2015 World Cup. The charges are understood to relate to alleged incidents that occurred in the second of those stints. It is also understood that the ACU had asked Jayasuriya to hand over a phone in his use at some time last year. Jayasuriya now has 14 days from October 15 to respond to the charges.
The ACU probe into corruption in Sri Lanka has been ongoing for over a year. Earlier this month, ACU general manager Alex Marshall issued an update on that probe, stating that a team was on the island “as part of [their] ongoing investigations into serious allegations of corruption in cricket in the country”. The ACU had also briefed the nation’s president, prime minister as well as the sports minister – who oversees Sri Lanka Cricket – though it is likely that the ACU did not divulge the names of those they were investigating.