Sachithra Senanayake Granted Bail By Colombo Chief Magistrate's Court In Match-Fixing Case

Former Sri Lanka National Cricket Team off-spinner Sachithra Senanayake has been granted bail by the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s court. The police media division has confirmed the development, as per ESPNCricinfo.

The 38-year-old was arrested due to an allegation of convincing players to fix the matches in the 2020 Lanka Premier League (LPL) season on September 6.

Meanwhile, the bail was granted to the former cricketer on two sureties of 5,000,000 LKR each, while the previously court-imposed travel ban is still in effect. He will appear before the court again on December 12, 2023.

Sachithra Senanayake Granted Bail

Sachithra Senanayake was not a participant in the Lanka Premier League (LPL) and he was overseas at that time when he trying to convince some players to fix the matches. He is alleged to have contacted more than one player who were part of the LPL. This information was then allegedly conveyed to the tournament’s anti-corruption officers.

The arrest was then made under the Prevention of Offences Relating to Sports Act, which was introduced in 2019. Under this law, “any person who solicits, entices, persuades, or instructs any person… to influence the result, progress, conduct … of any sport, commits the offence of corruption in sports”.

Senananayke was an important player in the Sri Lanka team before 2014. He played a vital role in Sri Lanka’s triumphant 2014 T20 World Cup campaign.

Although he made a return in 2014 with a remodeled bowling action, his career declined thereafter. He represented his country in one Test, 49 ODIs and 24 T20Is. He played his last ODI match in December 2015 and last T20I in 2016 for Sri Lanka. If we talk about his bowling performance, he took 53 wickets in the ODIs and 25 wickets in the T20Is. He could not take a single wicket in the only Test match which he played. Talking about his batting, he scored 290 runs at an average of 13.18 in ODIs and 56 runs in T20Is.

Sachithra Senanayake was also bought by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the IPL 2013 auction for USD $625,000.