The Special Report

15th July 2001

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Cricket Board probe clears Arjuna, Aravinda, hammers out at Indian bookmaker Gupta

After being under a cloud for several months over match-fixing allegations, Sri Lanka's World Cup winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga and star batsman Aravinda de Silva have been cleared of charges made by Indian bookmaker M.K. Gupta.

The not-guilty verdict was given by President's Counsel Desmond Fernando who had been appointed by the Sri Lanka's Cricket Board to probe the charges. 

Mr. Fernando observes that he cannot act on Mr. Gupta's complaints to India's Central Bureau of Investigations as he had refused to be questioned and cross examined either by him and lawyers for the cricketer. "I reiterate that Mr. Gupta's statement was inadequate untested and had infirmities which rendered his statement impossible to be acted upon.

"Both Aravinda de Silva and Arjuna Ranatunga were ready to answer questions put by me and indeed did so. I accept their evidence," Mr. Fernando said.

Excerpts from his report:

As I have already stated it appeared to me to be unlikely that Mr. Gupta would make himself available to be questioned by me and the Counsel for the two cricketers, and I therefore decided to proceed on the basis of his authenticated statement. I did not meet Mr. Gupta, was not in a position to question him or clarify any of the statements made by him, or get specific details. 

I considered that in fairness to all concerned the two Sri Lankan cricketers should be asked to make their observations on Mr. Gupta's statement. I wrote to Mr. Aravinda de Silva and Arjuna Ranatunga on 25/3/2001 stating that Mr. Gupta had alleged:

1) That in 1994 you and Mr. Ranatunga agreed with Mr. Gupta to under perform in 1994 in the first Test in Lucknow.

2) That accordingly you and Mr. Ranatunga lost the first Test.

3) That he paid around $15,000/= to you after the first Test.

4) That you and Mr. Ranatunga were ready to 'do' the other Tests.

Mr. de Silva denied the allegations. Mr. Ranatunga too denied the allegations against him.

Both cricketers were questioned by me. In my view, the inquiry held by me has a higher evidentiary value than the mere statement of Mr. Gupta. In addition to Mr. Gupta not giving evidence, in spite of the fact that he had made serious allegations against the two cricketers, his statement was lacking in precision. E.g. he did not state where the conversations with the cricketers took place, where the money was handed over to Mr. Aravinda de Silva and whether it was handed over in cash or otherwise. On the other hand, I saw the two cricketers, I heard them giving evidence and they also indicated their willingness to answer any question put by me, which I did.

Mr. de Silva gave evidence on 1st May 2001 in the presence of his Counsel, Dr. Harsha Cabraal, Attorney-at-Law. Mr. de Silva stated that he had been playing Test cricket since 1984, when he was 19 years old. Mr. de Silva said that he knows Mr. M.K. Gupta who was introduced to him as Mukesh. He was shown a photograph of Mr. Gupta and identified him as the person he knew. As far as he remembers he met him in New Delhi and probably at the Taj Hotel. Gupta had introduced himself to Mr. de Silva and described himself as a cricket fan.

Mr. de Silva stated that he knew Mr. Gupta and had been in touch with him. He had met him in India and Gupta would sometimes telephone him to Sri Lanka. He says that Prabhakar did not introduce Mr. Gupta to him but the first meeting was a casual one in India.

He said that Gupta had an immense knowledge of cricket. Sometimes he would ask him questions about team composition.

Mr. de Silva was then questioned about the first Test in Lucknow in 1994. He categorically denied the allegation that in 1994 he and Mr. Ranatunga, agreed with Mr. Gupta to under-perform at the first Test. When asked whether he and Mr. Ranatunga lost the first Test he stated "We did not perform as a team. We did not produce the goods and that was the reason for our debacle." He denied the allegation that he deliberately lost or did anything to deliberately lose. He further denies that he was paid $15,000 and that the money was physically handed over to him or given to him in any other way. Mr. de Silva states "I categorically deny he handed over any money". He also denies that he and Mr. Ranatunga were ready to lose the other Test.

Mr. de Silva was then questioned about Mr. Gupta's allegation that he and Mr. Ranatunga had offered to under-perform in the three other Test matches for money but that Mr. Gupta rejected their offer. Mr. de Silva denied this allegation.

Mr. de Silva refers to a significant incident with regard to Mr. Gupta. It took place in 1996 or 1997. What happened was that Mr. Gupta called him and told him that he was sending someone to discuss with him the organisation of a series of exhibition matches. This person then came to his hotel room, started talking about the matches and suddenly changed the topic to fixing a match in which Mr. de Silva was playing the next day. Mr. de Silva then stated that he would not do such a thing and requested this person to leave the room. He reported the matter to the Manager, Mr. Duleep Mendis, immediately. Mr. Mendis then summoned a meeting immediately and cautioned everyone that a team member had been approached (Mr. Duleep Mendis confirms that in fact, this took place). Subsequently, when Gupta got in touch with Mr. de Silva again, Mr. de Silva told Mr. Gupta that what he had done was wrong, in sending a person to talk to him about match fixing.

When Mr. de Silva told this to Mr. Gupta, Gupta stated that he was sorry and had not expected the man he sent to come and talk about fixing matches. Mr. de Silva then said that he had made a complaint because it was his duty and obligation to do so.

Gupta's possible motive

When Mr. de Silva was asked to suggest any reason why Gupta should have made this allegation against him, Mr. de Silva stated, "I am wondering whether I told him that I had made a complaint to the Cricket Board, and that is why I am wondering is that the reason. 

After that, every time he called I used to say, please don't call, because I had a little bit of doubt, after that I just wanted to try and keep away from him....... Maybe he was angry because of that, but I do not know. Maybe he would have thought I was trying to avoid him, that sort of feeling. After being in contact with him, every time he called I was trying to avoid him, so basically that would have been probably the reason." Mr. Gupta states at page 74 of his statement 'C' "I now had only Aravinda de Silva but he also started misleading me and I completely left betting and other association with Book making in May, 1998."

Ranatunga's interview

Mr. Ranatunga gave evidence on 2nd May 2001 in the presence of his Counsel, Mr. S. L. Gunasekera, Mr. Kalinga Indratissa, Mr. Hemaka de Alvis, Mr. Jeevantha Jayatillake and Mr. Indika Karunajeeva. He stated that he was selected to the National Team in 1982. In 1989, he got the Captaincy, ceased to be Captain and returned to the Captaincy in 1992/93. He ceased to be Captain in 1999. Mr. Ranatunga denied the allegations made by Mr. Gupta with regard to the 1994 Test match in Lucknow.

{He denied all charges levelled against him.}

Mr. Ranatunga stated that he might have met Mr. M. K. Gupta, but he was not sure whether he could remember the face. He was shown a photograph of Mr. Gupta and said that he was not sure if he could remember the face.

Mr. Ranatunga stated that he associates with most of the cricketers and that "when you are a Captain, you have to be very good with all the foreign cricketers, otherwise it is not easy to go through a long tour."

With regard to the Lucknow Test he stated that both he and Mr. Aravinda de Silva were batsmen and he added, "If I remember right, we played five bowlers in that series because we wanted to win the series because it has never happened in this country, we have never beaten India in India." He added.

"Both of us were just two batsmen only." He stated that, "The umpiring had been terrible. The amount of LBW decisions and the boundary line decisions was really bad. So I was one of the victims on this particular one. Out of the whole Test series I got about three or four bad decisions, and we had put that in the tour report that the umpiring has been terrible on the whole tour. 

So I was one of the victims right throughout the series." (At this stage, the Skanda Kumar report annexed marked 'D' was referred to, he also referred to the score card of the first match).

He also stated that he was the only Sri Lankan cricketer who did not appear in advertisements. He has only done free advertisements for charities. He had had many offers.

He denied any knowledge of the bookmaker referred to in the Skanda Kumar Report. Mr. Ranatunga also said that he was a loner and that he spent most of his time in his room analysing what had happened that day and what he should do on the next day. He cited the Skanda Kumar Report in support. He added that he did not spend much time at night clubs, having drinks or going behind women.

He said that he knew Prabhakar and had been to the opening ceremony of his wife's beauty salon.

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