No Lankan player has link with any bookie: Sangakkara
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Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara on Friday rubbished media reports that Tilakaratne Dilshan was under the ICC scanner for his alleged links with bookmakers and said none of his team-mates were suspected of "fraternising with shady characters".
"All these stories going around about Dilshan are absolutely baseless. No Sri Lankan player to my knowledge is in suspicion of fraternising with these so-called bookies by their team-mates nor by team management and Sri Lanka Cricket Board. As far as I know there was no report to SLC or ICC's Anti-corruption Unit," Sangakkara said.
According to British tabloid Daily Mail, Sri Lankan team manager filed a report to ICC's ACSU after Sangakkara informed him about suspicions among team-mates that Dilshan had been seen with the bookie during the Twenty20 World Cup in England in June last year.
Sangakkara denied it and said he had never passed on information of any suspicious activity by any of his team-mates to the management.
"I have never reported against any player specifically. All the players are very open in communicating with me and team management. No one including me have voiced our suspicion over any of our team-mates at any time nor reported specifically to the team manager or SLC," he asserted.
"If there is any report of any suspicion on any player, then it is better to ask the SLC and the team management about that but as far as I know ,there is no such thing," he told Times Now.
Sangakkara also ruled out any Sri Lankan player intentionally mixing up with illegal bookmakers. "Any of the players up to my knowledge have not fraternised with any of these shady characters. The only thing is you never know who is sitting at the chair next to you or who is taking photograph with you at a hotel or somewhere," he said.
SLC chief executive Ajith Jayasekara also dismissed reports of Dilshan being under ICC scanner.
"We don’t go by speculation or what any newspaper wants to say. We don't want to go by such reports. The Anti-corruption Unit of the ICC has not reported any such involvement of any player. We can’t go by speculation. This has not been brought to our notice by the anti-corruption unit of the ICC. There is no evidence against any Sri Lankan player," Jayasekara told PTI.
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