Warnaweera barred from all local cricket activities
View(s):The Jayananda Warnaweera episode reached another phase when it was reported that Sri Lanka Cricket has taken steps to bar the errant former tweaker and cricket official from all activities pertaining to the game, even locally.
According to a high official of Sri Lanka Cricket, Sri Lanka Cricket has taken steps to send across a letter barring Warnaweera from engaging in any cricket activity or club activity with immediate effect until he faces the charges formulated by the ICC pertaining to alleged match fixing. The letter concerned will be sent after the Interim Committee meeting scheduled for October 16.
The official told the Sunday Times “Now he will be barred from engaging in any activity in relation to cricket in any form, which includes cricket club activities”. It is said, so far they are interested to discuss about the activities of two of his associates.
Warnaweera failed to turn up last week for a match-fixing investigation conducted by the International Cricket Council (ICC) Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) and has been suspended by SLC from all his official duties as the curator of Galle International cricket stadium.
Two ACSU investigators had travelled to Colombo for the inquiry at Cinnamon Grand Hotel, but Warnaweera had not attended the hearing. Jayananda Warnaweera twice snubbed by the ACSU investigators.
However the ICC had alerted SLC earlier about the investigation and had reportedly instructed them to remove Warnaweera from all his official duties connected to cricket pending the outcome of the investigation. As a result, SLC suspended Warnaweera from his duties as the curator of the Galle International cricket stadium where he held the position for more than two decades after a lengthy first class career with Galle Cricket Club.Sources said that ICC had also advised SLC to refrain from issuing accreditation to Warnaweera for the current international series against the West Indies and for any other series till the outcome of the investigation and has also debarred Warnaweera from entering Galle stadium.
Earlier, Warnaweera had suddenly handed over his resignation as a member of the interim committee running the SLC citing personal reasons, thus leaving room for wild speculation. It was not the first instance that the cricketer turned foul with the ICC. Warnaweera failed to co-operate with an ICC match-fixing investigation back in 2006 that resulted in ICC rejecting his name from a list of Sri Lankans to be honoured with a special recognition medal for the ICC centenary in 2009.Mindful of this background, it is interesting to know as to who was responsible in recommending Jayananda Warnaweera to the 2015 Cricket Interim Committee – an interim committee whose prime object was to probe into the misdeeds of the past regime in power. Mysteriously Warnaweera and the treasurer of the last executive committee Nuski Mohammed named into the 2015 Cricket Interim Committee which was named by the then Sports Minister Navin Dissanayake.