Jayawardene Refuses Comment On Tilakaratne’s Match Fixing Allegation

Former Sri Lanka captain Hashan Tillakaratne stirred up a hornet’s nest on Friday (April 29) by alleging his national team of being involved in match-fixing. He claimed that matches involving the Sri Lankan team have been fixed since 1992. Tillakaratne asserted that he would soon reveal the names of players involved. The retired cricketer also cast aspersions on the changes made to the team composition for this year's World Cup final.

Meanwhile, former Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene refused to be drawn into the latest scandal. He instead felt that Tillakaratne needed to first provide substantial proofs to support his statements. “I have no comments; I just saw the headlines in the news. I don’t know we’ll have to wait and see what he has to say. And what he has to come up with, to be honest no comment on it till he comes out with it. People can say whatever they want; it has to be proven, it has to be with proper conviction,” said Jayawardene.

This is the second time in three months that match-fixing allegations are being thrown at the Sri Lankan national team. During the World Cup, there had been unconfirmed allegations stating that Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera were guilty of fixing their February 26 game against Pakistan. A show on Sri Lankan state-owned news channel ITN had implied that the two batsmen had deliberately performed poorly against Pakistan for money. But the channel had to subsequently withdraw the story and apologise.