Leg spin bowling all rounder Kaushal Lokuarachchi who received an 18-month ban on Wednesday for his failure to report an approach for match fixing during the Bangladesh Premier League, yesterday said the punishment is too harsh and he does not have any faith in the Bangladeshi tribunal.
The BPL anti-corruption tribunal imposed an eight-year ban on former Bangladesh captain and Lokuarachchi’s teammate Mohammad Ashraful, a ten-year ban on Dhaka Gladiators’ Managing Director Shihab Chowdhury and a three-year ban on former New Zealand batsman Lou Vincent for their alleged involvement in match and spot-fixing in the 2013 Bangladesh Premier League. The charge against Lokuarachchi, 32, was his failure to report a corrupted approach.
In a startling revelation Lokuarachchi said the approach was made by one of the owners of his team, Dhaka Gladiators, and he straightaway refused the offer to ‘spot fix’.
The incident happened on February 2, 2013, hours before the start of the Gladiators’ day night match against Chittagong Kings.
“He (owner of the team) asked me to give away 14 runs off the 17th over to be bowled by me. I straightaway said ‘no’. Then the CEO of the team approached me and asked me to do it. I again said ‘no’.”
Captain Ashraful had called upon Lokuarachchi to bowl the 17th over and the spinner had given away only three runs and got two wickets in the over.
However, Gladiators who were the defending champions and the form team in the tournament lost the match by 54 runs. It was widely speculated that the match was fixed.
“In the dressing room the owner threatened me and said I should not tell anyone what happened. Naturally I was very upset. As you see it was not a bookie who approached me, but an owner of the team, who provided me accommodation. So I kept mum.”
Lokuarachchi, who had been among the wickets, was not selected for the remaining matches of Gladiators.
On the 11th of February an official of the ICC’s anticorruption unit had got in touch with him, Lokuarachchi said.
Lokuarachchi’s lawyer Dinal Philips, PC, said the judgment meted out to his client cannot be accepted.
“The entire judgment is a shocker as Lokuarachchi has fully cooperated with the ICC all along. The punishment is far and excessive for a first time offender,” said Philips, an eminent commercial lawyer in the country.
Lokuarachchi questioning the credibility of the tribunal said if he had not told the truth he could have averted trouble.
“I’ve a serious doubt about these officials in the tribunal. In the first place they didn’t accept my statement. I told the truth and faced the consequences. I’m quite ready to accept the punishment if I had been approached by a bookie and I kept silent. But it was the owner of the team.”
Lokuarachchi has played four Tests, 21 ODIs and two T20s for Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka Cricket’s CEO Ashley de Silva said SLC was yet to hear anything official from the ICC or BCB regarding Lokuarachchi’s ban.
