Organisers of the Champions League Twenty20 tournament made a mockery of the International Cricket Council when they allowed suspended Sri Lankan cricketer Kaushal Lokuarachchi to participate in a qualifying game at Mohali in India on Tuesday.
ICC charged Lokuarachchi along with eight other individuals for match-fixing related offences in last season’s Bangladesh Premier League after a massive investigation by its Anti Corruption and Security Unit spanning several months.
Though cricket’s governing body did not officially disclose the names of the accused, Lokuarachchi publicly admitted to have been charged and should have been suspended since the day the ICC announced the charges.
ICC chief executive officer David Richardson categorically mentioned in his press conference in Dhaka on August 13 that all individuals charged will remain suspended until they prove themselves innocent.
Lokuarachchi, who played for tainted Dhaka Gladiators in the BPL, flouted the order the very next day playing in a Sri Lankan domestic Twenty20 game. He played another match on August 17 for Kandurata Maroons before being named in the CL squad by the franchisee.
English cricketer Darren Stevens, a co-accused in
the scandal, also flouted the ICC order, playing as many as six matches including three first-class matches for his county side Kent ever since the ICC announced its charges.
ICC maintained its position of not making any further comments over the issue leaving all confused on whether the provisional suspension of Lokuarachchi and Stevens have been lifted or not.
ICC’s silence, however, created an outcry in Bangladesh as all the accused Bangladeshi cricketers were taken away from the game by the Bangladesh Cricket Board. It has raised an obvious question of whether the BCB is playing a proactive role on the issue when the ICC is apparently silent.
-With New Age input
