Sri Lankan cricketer Praveen Jayawickrama faces three charges for breaching the ICC anti-corruption code. These charges include failure to report a match-fixing approach and plugging the investigation. Notably, the 25-year-old left-arm spinner failed to notify the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit about attempts to fix both international matches and Lanka Premier League games in 2021.
The International Cricket Council (ICC), on Thursday, August 8, announced that the cricketer had deleted the messages that were related to the attempts to conduct unethical practices. According to the report by ICC, the Sri Lankan bowler has been given 14 days, from August 6 to August 20, to respond to the ICC’s charges. The ICC will also take action against him regarding both his international cricket violations and the charges related to the Lanka Premier League 2021.
These include breaches of:
Article 2.4.4 – Failing to report to the Anti-Corruption Unit, without unnecessary delay, details of an approach he received to carry out fixing in future International Matches.
Article 2.4.4 – Failing to report to the Anti-Corruption Unit, without unnecessary delay, details of an approach he received in which he was asked to approach another player, on a corruptor’s behalf, to carry out fixing in the 2021 Lanka Premier League.
Article 2.4.7 – Obstructing the investigation by deleting messages in which the approaches and offers to engage in corrupt conduct were made.
The 25-year-old, who made his international debut in April 2021 has thus far played five games across all formats of the game. He has so far picked up a total of 32 wickets for Sri Lanka across all three formats. His most recent appearance for the national side was a T20I against Australia in June 2022. Additionally, he was part of Sri Lanka’s Asia Cup-winning squad in 2022 but was benched during all games.
