Cricket officials in Sri Lanka are struggling to come to grips with a report aired by the international television channel Al Jazeera that claimed a curator at the Galle International Stadium had made a pitch to suit an illegal betting syndicate in return for payment.
The occasion was a Test match between Sri Lanka and Australia in 2016. The claim is that the pitch suited spin bowlers and the match ended inside three days.
“There have been no complaints regarding the Galle pitch from the captains, umpires or the match referee during the Test match between Australia and Sri Lanka in 2016.
“The players did not complain, the captains (of the two teams) report, umpires report and the match referee’s report did not say anything about the pitch. There is nothing adverse about the pitch. It is difficult to believe there was any wrongdoing”, said Mohan de Silva the vice president of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).
Former Sri Lanka player Jeevantha Kulatunga, a provincial team coach, has been named as one of the characters and he has dismissed the Al Jazeera report as “false”.
Al Jazeera said their report was made by an undercover reporter with a hidden camera who spoke to Kulatunga about match-fixing.
Interestingly it is a well known fact that all cricket boards in the world have made their players and employees aware that any talk of match-fixing on the part of anyone should be immediately brought to the notice of the authorities, in this case SLC.
Even the International Cricket Council (ICC) has been put into a confused state after its request to Al Jazeera to provide them with an unedited version of the match-fixing report was turned down.
“I ask Al Jazeera to release to us all the material they have relating to corruption in cricket. We will conduct a full, thorough and fair investigation and will ensure no stone is left un-turned as we examine all allegations of corruption made in the programme. However, to prove or disprove these allegations we need to see the evidence referred to in the programme”, said Richardson.