London/Colombo, Sept. 10: The match-fixing scandal that has cast its shadow over the Pakistan cricket team moved to Sri Lanka on Friday with reports that their top batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan and fast bowler Dilhara Fernando had been investigated by the ICC’s Anti-corruption and Security Unit (ACSU).
Dilshan, who has played 63 Tests and 188 ODIs for the island nation, had been monitored by the ACSU for alleged links with a bookmaker, London’s Daily Mail claimed.
With regard to Fernando, a Sri Lankan newspaper, The Island, alleged that he has been under ICC investigation for almost two years now. However, the Sri Lankan Board denied involvement of its players in match-fixing, saying the charges against Dilshan were “character assassination”, while insisting that Fernando had voluntarily disclosed an approach by the bookies to the ICC.
The Daily Mail claimed that Dilshan was the player named in a Sri Lanka Cricket report to ICC’s ACSU last year after he was allegedly spotted with a suspected illegal bookmaker in a London nightclub. But the SLC rejected the report with spokesman Brian Thomas saying in Colombo that there were no allegations against Dilshan.