Former Sri Lanka seamer and coach Nuwan Zoysa was on Wednesday banned from all cricket for six years after being discovered responsible of making an attempt to repair matches and failing to reveal corrupt approaches from a suspected Indian bookie.
The ban on Zoysa, a left-arm seamer, is backdated to October 31, 2018, when he was provisionally suspended.
“In his role as a national coach, he should have acted as a role model. Instead, he became involved with a corrupter and attempted to corrupt others,” Alex Marshall, ICC General Manager- Integrity Unit stated in a launch.
“Contriving to fix a game betrays the basis of sporting principles. It will not be tolerated in our sport.”
The 42-year-old, who performed 30 Tests and 95 ODIs for Sri Lanka, was initially charged in 2018 after his stint as bowling coach of Team Sri Lanka in a T10 event organised within the UAE in 2017.
In its full judgement, the ICC stated Zoysa was launched to the Indian suspect in Colombo in 2017 throughout his time as Sri Lanka A’s bowling coach.
After just a few interactions, the previous bowler turned conscious that the person, known as Mr W in ICC paperwork, “was involved in fixing matches, or aspects of matches” and wished to have Zoysa on board as a result of, “as a coach he knew players and would be able to get them to fix matches”.
“At (Mr W)’s request, Mr Zoysa approached (Player A) late in 2017 and asked him whether, in connection with Sri Lanka’s then upcoming series against Bangladesh and/or Zimbabwe, he would be willing to give away 12-15 runs inan over while bowling, or to get out deliberately when batting,” the ICC judgement stated.
“Mr Zoysa told (Player A) that he could get good money if he under-performed in this way. (Player A) immediately refused that approach and told Mr Zoysa that he wouldn’t agree to do that,” it added.
Following full hearings and arguments, the Tribunal discovered Zoysa responsible of breaching articles regarding making an attempt to repair matches, engaging others to breach the code of conduct and failing to report approaches by corrupt people.
Zoysa was additionally charged by the ICC on behalf of the Emirates Cricket Board for breaching three counts of their ECB Anti-Corruption Code for the T10 League and these proceedings are ongoing.
He had labored as a bowling coach of Sri Lanka A workforce up to now.
Zoysa is the newest in an extended line of Sri Lankan cricketers who’ve been banned by the ICC for corruption.
Earlier this month, former pacer Dilhara Lokuhettige was banned from all cricket for eight years after being discovered responsible of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code.
In 2019, Sanath Jayasuriya was banned for failing to co-operate with an Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) investigation.In 2016, former Sri Lanka offspinner Jayananda Warnaweera was suspended below the code.
