Lanka appoint panel on match-fixing

"We want to have a committee that will make recommendations and we hope to publish them and also go to the International Cricket Council (ICC) and ask them to adopt such systems to prevent the fraud of match fixing," Sumathipala said.

He said no specific measures were being taken even as the country prepared to play their 100th Test against Pakistan here on Wednesday.

Five members of the visiting Pakistan team were fined last month after being named in a report on match-fixing in Pakistan. "I am not a policeman who can go round looking for bookies at the grounds," Sumathipala said.

"But, I am proud that our players have never been implicated in this type of fraud." Questions were raised about Sumathipala’s own election here on Sunday amid allegations that his family business of horse racing and betting prevented him from holding high office in the Board.

But Sumathipala eventually won uncontested in a one-horse race after his main challenger withdrew at the last minute. Sumathipala maintained he was not directly involved in betting and bookies and therefore not disqualified from heading the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka.

The Pakistan team, which arrived here on Friday night, imposed a strict call monitoring system amid allegations that bookies were getting through to players on the telephone. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) last month fined Wasim Akram, Mushtaq Ahmed, Waqar Younis, Inzamam-ul Haq and Saeed Anwar following Judge Malik Qayyum’s report into match-fixing, the Daily News said.

The five are currently in Sri Lanka. Pakistan will play three Test matches and take part in a triangular One-day series with South Africa and Sri Lanka.