Sri Lanka becomes first South Asian nation to declare match-fixing a crime.

Sri Lanka has become the first South Asian nation to bring match-fixing cases to the category of crime. His parliament passed a bill related to ‘prevention of sports related crimes’. After the passage of this bill, match fixing in Sri Lanka will be considered an offense.

This new law related to match fixing and corruption will apply to every game. It is believed that recently the International Cricket Council (ICC) Anti Corruption Unit (ACU) was investigated in Sri Lanka for matters related to match fixing. Due to this investigation, this bill was drafted.

According to a cricket website, it has been revealed that under this law, if a person is found guilty of corruption in the game, he can be punished for up to 10 years. Apart from this, he will also have to pay heavy fines. The scope of this law will come with the match official as well as the pitch curator. If the pitch curator is found guilty of preparing the pitch according to the situation then he will also have to go to jail.

The bill was introduced in Parliament by Sri Lankan Sports Minister Harin Fernando. Which was supported by former captain Arjun Ranatunga in Parliament. Arjun Ranatunga is a cabinet minister in the current government. The Sports Ministry worked closely with the ICC’s ACU while drafting the bill.

The bill also provides for stringent action against those who will hide information even after contact with the bookies. This now means that the Sri Lankan cricketers will not only have to give information to the ACU in the case of contact by the stalwarts, but also the Special Investigation Unit appointed by the government. This also becomes important because the ICC banned Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan for two years in a recent corruption case. He did not inform ACU of the contact by the bookie.