Lanka cricket prefers to wait and watch now

A day after taking on the state-owned television channel for accusing Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera for throwing their wickets away during Sri Lanka's loss to Pakistan on Saturday, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) preferred to adopt the wait-and-watch policy. Amol Karhadkar reports.

A day after taking on the state-owned television channel for accusing Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera for throwing their wickets away during Sri Lanka's loss to Pakistan on Saturday, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) preferred to adopt the wait-and-watch policy.

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Though no SLC official was willing for an official reaction considering "the sensitivity of the matter", it was learnt that the game's governing body has thrown the ball into the players' court.

“The channel has issued its clarification. Still, if the players want to pursue the matter legally, the SLC will stand firmly behind them," an SLC insider, preferring anonymity, said on Thursday evening.

Both the players, meanwhile, are waiting to hear from their lawyers about a possible legal action against the television channel.

Meanwhile, with Sri Lanka and Australia in the thick of allegations of spot-fixing, the Pakistan camp can well afford to heave a sigh of relief. That is how coach Waqar Younis looked at the developments.

When asked on the eve of Pakistan's tie against Canada whether it feels to not be the subject of spot-fixing allegations, Waqar said, "Feels good, doesn't it? Feels great. Let's not talk about it, I think the game has been pretty fair. The entire event has been pretty clean. The teams who are better have won games and I think it's pretty clean. It's a talk. I'm glad Pakistan is not in it."