DUBAI: Sri Lanka great Sanath Jayasuriya became one of the most high-profile figures embroiled in corruption in cricket when he was charged on Monday with two counts of disrupting an investigation by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Jayasuriya was a star of the Sri Lanka team that won the Cricket World Cup in 1996 during a playing career that spanned 22 years and took in 110 Tests and 445 One-day Internationals. He later served on the Sri Lankan parliament from 2010-15, and became the national team’s chairman of selectors.

His reputation could be tarnished, though, after the ICC said the 49-year-old Jayasuriya has been charged with offenses relating to the ‘failure or refusal’ to cooperate with an investigation carried out by its anti-corruption unit, and also for ‘obstructing or delaying’ an investigation.

“The International Cricket Council has charged Jayasuriya on two counts of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) and have given him two weeks to respond,” the ICC said in a statement. “Mr Jayasuriya has 14 days from 15 Oct 2018 to respond to the charges. The ICC will not make any further comment in respect of these charges at this stage.”

It wasn’t known which matches the charges relate to, or if anyone else is involved. The ICC recently said Alex Marshall, general manager of the anti-corruption unit, was overseeing a probe into potential corrupt practices over ‘serious allegations’ in Sri Lanka last week.

“The charges include failure or refusal, without compelling justification, to cooperate with any investigation carried out by the ACU, including failure to provide accurately and completely any information and/or documentation requested by the ACU as part of such investigation,” the ICC said.

The second charge included the “concealing, tampering with or destroying any documentation or other information that may be relevant to that investigation and/or that may be evidence or may lead to the discovery of evidence of corrupt conduct” under the anti-corruption code.

The ICC’s ACU is acting further on their previous investigation which in January 2016 saw Galle stadium curator Jayananda Warnaweera banned for three years after he failed to cooperate with the ACU.

Marshall last month said: “The ACU works to uphold integrity in cricket and this includes conducting investigations where there are reasonable grounds to do so. There is currently an ICC (ACU) investigation under way in Sri Lanka. Naturally as part of this we are talking to a number of people.”

Jayasuriya, who was Sri Lanka captain from 1999 to 2003, amassed 6,973 runs at an average of just over 40 in Tests. That puts him behind only Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene in his country’s all-time list.

He scored 13,430 runs in ODIs a total bettered only by Sangakkara, India’s Sachin Tendulkar and Australia’s Ricky Ponting and was well known for his big hitting at the top of the order.

The Jayasuriya-led selection panel resigned en masse last year following protests over Sri Lanka’s slump in form.

Forming a formidable opening partnership with wicket-keeper/batsman Romesh Kaluwitharana, Jayasuriya was a key member of Sri Lanka’s breakthrough 50-over World Cup triumph in 1996.

A natural at the Twenty20 format that emerged near the end of his playing days, Jayasuriya continued batting until 2012 when he moved into politics.

Jayasuriya altogether played 445 One-day Internationals and 31 Twenty20 Internationals during an illustrious career between 1989 and 2011. He is also a former member of Sri Lanka’s parliament.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2018