The Pitch at Galle

Robin Morris told undercover reporters, “What happens is he, we, can make a pitch to do whatever we want it do to.” Al Jazeera reported the statement as part of allegations that the Galle International Stadium pitch had been doctored in connection with betting-related match manipulation. The program said its investigation had revealed how criminals fixed two Test matches and were planning to fix a third: England’s game against Sri Lanka at Galle in November 2018.

The reporting described pitch preparation as the proposed mechanism. In undercover-recorded material, Tharanga Indika said a pitch could be prepared to favor spin bowling, pace bowling, or batting. Morris’s statement and Indika’s account appeared in the same investigation, which discussed Sri Lanka’s Tests against Australia in August 2016 and India in July 2017. Al Jazeera presented those accounts as allegations, not adjudicated findings.

Indika described the Australia Test this way: “In that five-day match, we prepared the wicket poorly without using a roller. In that way, we made a spinning wicket.” Al Jazeera reported that the pitch had been made into a bowling pitch, batsmen were out quickly, and the match ended in less than two and a half days. The Test’s duration became the clearest documented consequence attached to the preparation described in the report.

After the broadcast, Sri Lanka Cricket suspended Indika and Tharindu Mendis. Sports minister Faiszer Musthapha urged the cricket board to hand the inquiry to law-enforcement authorities. The suspensions were the board’s reported response to the broadcast and its allegations; they did not establish a criminal finding.

The ICC said it engaged four independent betting and cricketing specialists to analyze the claims. Alex Marshall said the review found “fundamental weaknesses” in the areas the ICC investigated. The ICC’s stated conclusion was narrower: there was insufficient evidence under its Code to lay any charges.