Sri Lanka Cricket slams ITN for 'match fixing' implications, legal action in progress

Sri Lanka Cricket, the governing body of the national cricket team today slammed the state-run TV broadcaster Independent Television Network (ITN) for implications of 'match fixing' against two players of its World Cup team.

In a press release, SLC denied the allegations of match-fixing by Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera in Saturday's loss to Pakistan by 11 runs in the World Cup match at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

The ITN in a Sinhala language programme 'Wimasuma' (Research) questioned the performance of the two players who were dismissed cheaply by the Pakistan bowlers. The host of the program has implied that the players have thrown away their wickets 'deliberately' to "change the game".

Jayawardena who scored a century in the opener against Canada was dismissed for 2 while Samaraweera only scored one for the Sri Lanka total of 266/9 in reply to Pakistan's 277.

"It is with deep regret that we note that a leading television channel in a special programme, namely 'Wimasuma', has stated that Sri Lanka has lost against Pakistan due to two of our leading players not getting runs in that game," SLC said in the press release.

"Further they added that the two players had failed intentionally, thereby implying that our players might have been involved in match-fixing," SLC added.

The SLC questioned the motives of the host who has also said in the programme that a local businessman has bet for $18 [...]