COLOMBO: Sri Lankan spin bowler Praveen Jayawickrama has been banned from cricket for a year by the sport’s world governing body after he pleaded guilty to a corruption charge.

The International Cricket Council said the 26-year-old spinner, who has not been included in a national squad since June 2022, admitted breaching the body’s anti-corruption code.

“As a result of the admission, Jayawickrama has accepted a sanction of a one-year period of ineligibility, of which the last six months are suspended,” the ICC said in a statement on Wednesday night.

He was accused of failing to report an approach to fix a match during the Sri Lanka Premier League tournament in 2021, as well as future international matches. He was also accused of deleting messages on his phone relating to the approach.

Jayawickrama has played five international matches in each of the sport’s three formats since his international debut in April 2021 in a Test against Bangladesh.

Sri Lanka introduced tough laws in 2019 to fight corruption in sport, including match fixing in cricket, the country’s most popular sport.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2024