Galle Marvels team owner Prem Thakur has been arrested on charges of match fixing in Lanka T10. Thakur was arrested on Thursday, a day after the tournament began, and produced before the Colombo Magistrate’s Court on Friday; Since then he has been taken on remand till 16 December.
Thakur, an Indian national, was arrested by the Sri Lanka Sports Police Unit under the 2019 Prevention of Sports-Related Offenses Act, Sri Lanka Police told ESPNcricinfo. He was arrested from a hotel in Kandy, where the Lanka T10 tournament is going on. It is understood that an overseas player flagged a fixing approach made by Thakur. Like the LPL earlier this year, a representative of the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit is also in Sri Lanka to oversee the tournament at the request of Sri Lanka Cricket.
While SLC has not yet spoken on the matter, Lanka T10 tournament director Samantha Doddonwella confirmed that the tournament “will go ahead as scheduled”.
Titan Global League and IPG, the consortium partners, issued a statement on the matter saying, “We maintain a strictly zero-tolerance policy towards corruption in cricket. We are fully committed to maintaining the integrity of the game. and will provide full cooperation.” Officials in the ongoing investigation.
“League management is dedicated to protecting the rights of all players and officials while ensuring the uninterrupted conduct of the event.”
This is the second franchise tournament in Sri Lanka this year in which a team owner has been arrested under the country’s sports anti-corruption ordinance after LPL franchise Dambulla Thunders co-owner Tamim Rahman was arrested in May on match-fixing charges. . In 2019, Sri Lanka became the first country in South Asia to criminalize match-fixing, with various fines and prison sentences of up to ten years for offenses related to corruption in sports.
The Lanka T10 is Sri Lanka’s first attempt at hosting a T10 franchise league, the event rights for the tournament are managed and operated by Innovative Production Group, a consortium of T Ten Sports Management and T Ten Global Sports, which also operates several other Does. T10 franchise leagues around the world.
Leave a Reply