Travel ban on former Sri Lanka spinner accused of match-fixing

A Sri Lankan court slapped a travel ban on former national cricketer Sachithra Senanayake on Monday, the first player to be investigated for match-fixing under a new anti-corruption law.

The 38-year-old spinner's passport was impounded after state lawyers asked for more time to investigate an incident from the 2020 Lanka Premier League (LPL).

"The travel ban will be in place till October 16, when the case is due to be taken up before the Colombo magistrate," a court official told reporters in Colombo.

Senanayake, who played his last international match against Australia in a T20 game in September 2016, is accused of influencing two LPL players to fix their matches in 2020.

He retired from all forms of the game in February 2020 but investigations into his conduct continued.

Police said Senanayake is the first player to be prosecuted under a 2019 sports law that recognises match-fixing as a criminal offence.

A conviction could result in a maximum jail term of 10 years, a fine not exceeding 100 million rupees ($317,000), or both.

Formal charges against Senanayake are to be read out in October but the former player has publicly maintained his innocence.

Several high-profile Sri Lanka cricketers have been investigated and penalised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) over corruption but Senanayake is the first to be criminally prosecuted.

Then sports minister Harin Fernando introduced the tough new law in November 2019 after saying the ICC considered Sri Lanka one of the world's most corrupt nations under its purview.

Another former sports minister, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, told parliament in 2021 that match-fixing was rife in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka's 1996 World Cup-winning skipper Arjuna Ranatunga urged fans in 2021 to boycott watching matches to protest against what he called "mismanagement, corruption and indiscipline" in the national team.