Questioning ends for Ranatunga, de Silva

Investigators probing match-fixing in cricket have finished questioning former Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga and leading Test batsman Aravinda de Silva.

"The process is over now. The questioning went all right," said lawyer Desmond Fernando on Thursday. "I questioned them myself and the International Cricket Council also had one or two questions."

Fernando was appointed by the Sri Lankan cricket board last November to examine allegations in an Indian police report that the two players had taken bribes from bookmakers to throw matches.

Fernando added that several questions had been given to him by the New Zealand cricket board.

Two officials from the ICC's anti-corruption unit were present for the questioning.

Ranatunga, who led Sri Lanka to their 1996 World Cup triumph, and de Silva, the country's most prolific Test batsmen, were among several international players named in the Indian police report.

ICC anti-corruption unit chief Paul Condon, a former head of London's Metropolitan Police, told a news conference last week in Sri Lanka that he was satisfied with the way Sri Lanka are probing the charges, which have been denied by both players.

"I will never have any part in a cover-up, nothing and no one will be too sacred," he said when asked about reports in the local media criticising the Sri Lankan investigation.

Since the scandal last year, three former Test captains -- South African Hansie Cronje, India's Mohammad Azharuddin and Pakistan's Salim Malik -- have been banned for life.

Mail Cricket Editor