Sri Lankan cricketer banned for 5 years in corruption charges

The 39-year-old Sri Lankan domestic cricketer Saliya Saman has been banned from all forms of cricket for five years due to several corruption charges in the Abu Dhabi T10 2021.

An ICC anti-corruption tribunal recently found Saliya Saman guilty of breaching the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) anti-corruption code. In September 2023, eight people - all linked with Pune Devils in the Abu Dhabi T10 2021 - were suspended for involvement in the corruption. Saliya Saman and Bangladesh cricketer Nasir Hossain were among the eight guilty people. While Saman has now been suspended for five years, his suspension period starts from September 13, 2023.

Charges on Saliya Saman

Saliya Saman has been found guilty of breaching the following three articles of the ECB's anti-corruption code.

2.1.1 - Being party to an attempt to fix, contrive, or influence improperly matches or aspects of matches in the Abu Dhabi T10 2021.
2.1.3 - Offering a Reward to another Participant in exchange for that player engaging in Corrupt Conduct under the Code.
2.1.4 - Directly or indirectly soliciting, inducing, enticing, instructing, persuading, encouraging, or intentionally facilitating any Participant to breach Code Article 2.1.

The three-member tribunal, comprising Nigel Peters KC, Justice Zak Yacoob, and chairman Harish Salve KC, has brought the final order against Saman. He was found to play a player recruiter role for match fixing in the Abu Dhabi T10 2021. According to the final order, the recruited player "would play all the fixtures, in two of those he would agree to do something that is commonly understood as match fixing."

Saliya Saman's cricket career

Saliya Saman was a Sri Lankan domestic cricketer who was an all-rounder as a right-handed batter and right-arm medium fast bowler. After making his domestic professional cricket debut in 2004, Saman played 101 first-class games, 77 List A matches, and 47 T20s. In his first-class career, he recorded 3662 runs, including two centuries and 22 half-centuries, and 231 wickets, including seven fifers and one ten-wicket haul. Saman scored 898 List A runs and 673 T20 runs while taking 84 List A wickets and 58 T20 wickets.