ICC mum on Raina issue

ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat at a press conference in Mumbai on Wednesday. Photo: Vivek Bendre

International Cricket Council (ICC) on Wednesday refused comments on whether it was investigating Suresh Raina accompanying a woman allegedly linked with illegal bookies, saying even if any report had been sent to it on the issue the matter will remain under wraps.

“We don’t disclose the details of the financial deals with our commercial partners. Equally we also don’t disclose the sending of reports by the cricket boards to the ACSU (Anti-Corruption and Security Unit) in the public forum,” Lorgat said.

“Boards speak with us and we speak with the Boards. That’s the protocol,” said ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat at a press conference.

He was reacting to reports in

Sunday Times of London that the ACSU is probing why the Indian Cricket Board kept quiet about a report of Raina being seen in the company of a woman linked to an associate of an illegal bookmaker during his team’s visit to Sri Lanka in July-August.

The report has been rubbished as “false and baseless” by BCCI secretary N. Srinivasan in a media statement on October 24.

“The BCCI has just learnt that several media outlets are claiming that Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) had submitted a report on Suresh Raina to it, and that no action was taken by the Board on the same.

“The BCCI would like to clarify that it has received no such report from SLC. The claims being made by a section of the media are totally baseless and false,” Srinivasan said in his media release.