Sri Lankan batting legend Sanath Jayasuriya was on Monday charged on two counts for breaching the ICC anti-corruption code and given two weeks to respond by cricket's world governing body.
The ICC did not specify what exactly prompted its action against the celebrated cricketer, who is a World Cup winner and has played 110 Tests and 445 ODIs in his career.
However, a source in Sri lanka Cricket said that the former player is in the line of fire for “trying to block” an ICC probe which began in 2015. The investigation into Sri Lankan cricket began after Galle curator Jayananda Warnaweera was banned for three years in 2016 for failing to cooperate with the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU).
Jayasuriya has been charged with two offences under the ICC anti-corruption code.
“Article 2.4.6 Failure or refusal, without compelling justification, to cooperate with any investigation carried out by the ACU, including failure to provide accurately and completely any information and/or documentation requested by the ACU as part of such investigation,” said the ICC in a statement.
“Article 2.4.7 Obstructing or delaying any investigation that may be carried out by the ACU, including concealing, tampering with or destroying any documentation or other information that may be relevant to that investigation and/or that may be evidence or may lead to the discovery of evidence of corrupt conduct under the Anti-Corruption Code,” it added.
Starting on Monday, Jayasuriya has 14 days to respond to the charges.
“The ICC will not make any further comment in respect of these charges at this stage,” the statement added.
“At first, he refused to join the probe when the ACU investigation team approached him last year. He also declined the request to part with the information in his phone, which was relevant to the investigators,” the SLC source said.
“But the ICC has not charged him with either match-fixing or any corrupt activities. The charge against him is only non-cooperation in probe,” he added.
One of Sri Lanka's greatest cricketers, 49-year-old Jayasuriya was part of the team that won the 1996 World Cup―Sri Lanka's first and only World Cup trophy―and his Test career lasted over a decade.
After signing off from international cricket, Jayasuriya also tried his hands at politics and, in 2010, became an elected member of the Sri Lankan parliament—a stint which ended in 2015. He also served as a minister.
In 2013, he became the island nation's cricket selection committee chairman. His tenure ended in 2015 after a string of failures by the Lankan team.
