In a dramatic twist of events, cricket umpire KKD Chandana who recently accused the Sri Lanka Cricket Umpires Committee of fixing the exam results, was himself accused of influencing the result of a school’s cricket match that he had officiated.
Umpire K.K.D Chandana was recently summoned by the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association and asked to provide an explanation for calling off a cricket match when a result was imminent and both schools competing had an equal opportunity of winning the game.
The said match involved two schools that coincidentally happened to be coached by the same coach.
The said coach had requested the captains of both schools to call off the match during the start of the mandatory overs and the on-field umpires which included K.K.D.Chandana, chose to call the game off. It is believed that both schools did not want to lose crucial points in the event of being on the losing side.
A top SLC official when contacted and who chose to remain anonymous said ” these types of allegations come up from time to time. When people are disgruntled over certain issues that are not favourable to them they tend to make such accusations. However these have yet to be proved.”
Meanwhile, it was barely a few days that the said cricket umpire KKD Chandana, whilst addressing the media accused the Sri Lanka Cricket Umpires Committee of leaking the umpires exam paper questions to selected candidates and further stated that a case regarding it was filed at the Human Rights Commission.
KKD Chandana said “Sri Lanka Cricket conducted an examination not to establish competent umpires but to promote their henchmen who secretly received the question paper well in advance before the exam and two people in the Umpires Committee are responsible for the leak-out.”
He charged that exam cheating by umpires had been taking place at Sri Lanka Cricket over the years amid total silence by those who were supposed to have blown the whistle, but instead chose to keep mum.
“In the past there were about five or six umpires who received the question paper before the exam, but this time as many as 25 umpires got hold of the question paper. We cannot tolerate what was taking place any longer at Sri Lanka Cricket, where umpires rose up in the ranks through cheating and favouritism and that is why we decided to go to the Human Rights Commission”, said Chandana.
