Tillakaratne to squeal on teammates

Former Sri Lanka skipper taking fixing allegations to ICC

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP):

Former Sri Lanka captain, Hashan Tillakaratne, said he will reveal names of those involved in match-fixing only to the International Cricket Council (ICC) first.

Tillakaratne, a politician in Sri Lanka's Opposition, claimed in a local TV programme last week that match-fixing has been rampant in Sri Lanka since 1992, and repeated his allegations yesterday to the Western Provincial Council, where he was elected to office.

Tillakaratne said he will reveal the names of those involved in fixing matches "at the appropriate time". He declined, for now he said, on legal advice.

Within hours of his comments yesterday, he was questioned by police for an hour, without further detail.

"I made a statement to the provincial council, I said that I still maintain my stand on the (match-fixing) allegations," Tillakaratne said.

getting death threats

"After I came out with these allegations I have been getting a lot of nuisance calls, death threats, but definitely I will expose all those who are involved in a time to come."

When asked why he has not followed the established procedure of working with the ICC's anti-corruption unit, Tillakaratne said, "I will do that in the days to come."

He said he'd been reluctant to voice his allegations until now over fear for his safety.

Tillakaratne played 83 Tests and 200 one-day internationals (ODI) for Sri Lanka from 1986-2004. He was a member of the World Cup-winning team in 1996.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) expressed concern over the allegations and called for "concrete evidence" to substantiate them.

"We also wish to state that we find it extremely strange that these so-called 'revelations' are being made so many years after the alleged misdeeds," the national cricket board said in a statement yesterday.

SLC said it discussed the matter with Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage, who ordered a police inquiry into the allegations.

several players banned

Several international players, including South Africa's Hansie Cronje, India's Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja, and Pakistan's Salim Malik have been found guilty of match-fixing and served bans in the past decade. No Sri Lankan player has yet been seriously investigated.

More recently, Pakistan players Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir received bans of five years or more this year after being found guilty by the ICC for bowling no-balls at predetermined times in a Test last year against England, to fix spot-betting markets.