COLOMBO – Sri Lankan cricket’s anti-corruption unit detained two Indianspectators on suspicion of match-fixing during a domestic Twenty20 leaguegame, officials said Wednesday.
The men were apprehended after officials spotted them behaving suspiciouslyand making repeated calls on their mobile phones during the match betweenGalle and Dambulla at Pallekele, in the island’s central hills.
“We saw suspicious behaviour of the two Indians and ACU (anti-corruptionunit) officials handed them over to the police for further investigations,”a Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) official told AFP.
The arrest comes a day after SLC issued a new match-fixing alert after agroup of spectators were asked to leave another venue after officialssuspected them of involvement in attempted match-fixing.
The ongoing T20 tournament features solely Sri Lankan cricketers afterplans to emulate the massively lucrative Indian Premier League and attractforeign stars to Sri Lanka fell through.
Authorities say the scaled-down competition is still attractingmatch-fixers, and have increased the deployment of officials at games andteam hotels, while players have been warned to inform the authorities ofany attempt to approach them to fix matches.
Sri Lanka has also announced plans for tougher laws against sportscorruption and a special police unit to deal with match-fixing following anAl-Jazeera documentary exposing corruption in global cricket in which threeSri Lanka officials were filmed agreeing to sway matches. – APP/AFP