Ranatunga, de Silva deny match-fixing charges

Jul 31, 2018 (LBO) - Sri Lanka’s World Cup winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga and deputy Aravinda de Silva denied  allegations made by former Cricket chief Thilanga Sumathipala that they accepted bribes from an Indian bookmaker. “Not 15,000 dollars, but we could have made 15 million dollars if we threw the world cup,” the 1996 World cup winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga told reporters in Colombo a short while ago. “We have never fixed matches or taken any bribes to throw matches." Sumathipala earlier last week said de Silva were offered US 15,000 dollars for fixing a test match against India in Lucknow India during 1994. Investigations were carried out regarding the matter and a Sri Lankan investigation by lawyer Desmond Fernando had cleared both Ranatunga and de Silva after Gupta failed to testify before the local inquiry. “If anyone has thrown matches, they should be kicked out of the country,” Ranatunga added. He said Sumathipala was repeating allegations made two and a half decades ago as part of a political vendetta.