The International Cricket Council has started an inquiry into the reason why the Board of Control for Cricket in India did not promptly inform it about a report linking Indian Test player Suresh Raina with an associate of an illegal bookmaker, a newspaper here has reported.
The Sri Lankan cricket board, a report in London’s Sunday Times claimed, had submitted a report, including CCTV footage, of Raina being seen in the company of a woman known to be an associate of a man allegedly linked to an illegal bookmaker. The incident took place during the Indian tour of Sri Lanka earlier this year.
The BCCI, however, rubbished this, saying that the woman in question was the agent of the Indian batsman. “That is untrue and baseless. It’s all rubbish. No complaint had ever come to the BCCI from either the ICC or Sri Lanka Cricket. The BCCI had never received any complaint on this matter. Actually, the lady is Raina’s agent,” said BCCI media committee chairman Rajiv Shukla.
The Sri Lankan board also denied giving any such report to the ICC. “This is news to me. There is no truth in this report,” Sri Lanka Cricket secretary Nishantha Ranatunga said.
The 23-year-old Raina is not suspected of any wrongdoing, but the ICC decided to investigate the matter after BCCI secretary N. Srinivasan reportedly was alleged to have got the Sri Lankans to withdraw the report instead of acting on it.
Raina is part of the Chennai Super Kings IPL team owned by Indian Cements, of which Mr Srinivasan is vice-chairman and managing director.
The ICC’s anti-corruption and security unit led by chief investigator Ravi Sawani is investigating “why the Sri Lankans shared the report with the Indians first when under anti-corruption rules it should have gone straight to the ICC,” the Sunday Times said.
However, the ICC on Sunday was not available for comment on the report about the alleged investigation against the Indian board. The ICC was quoted in the report as saying: “We don’t comment on any investigation.”
ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat had recently confirmed that the organisation would be involved in policing the next IPL season. “The first two editions were not policed by the ACSU. But they realised later on that they perhaps needed more support. The last one was the first time when they fully engaged the ACSU. And we will be engaged in the next IPL season as well,” Mr Lorgat said.
The world body is already investigating allegations of corruption involving three Pakistani cricketers, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir. The ICC suspended all three cricketers pending investigation. In a surprising move, Mohammed Asif withdrew his appeal against the suspension on Friday.