The captain of the Sri Lanka cricket team, Kumar Sangakkara, has warned of ‘the curse of corruption, especially spot-fixing’.
He was giving the 2011 Cowdrey Lecture ‘the spirit of cricket’ on Monday, July 4, at Lord’s Cricket Ground.
Sangakkara, the first Sri Lankan to give the pretigious lecture, said that we have ‘reached a critical juncture in the game’s history’; unless, among other things, we more aggressively root out corruption ‘then cricket will face an uncertain future’.
In a wide-ranging speech about Sri Lanka and cricket, he spoke of how ‘Accusations of vote buying and rigging, player interference due to lobbying from each side and even violence at the AGMs, including the brandishing of weapons and ugly fist fights, have characterised cricket board elections for as long as I can remember.’ Interestingly he suggested that a loss of accountability and transparency in administration and credibility of conduct has an effect on team performance on the cricket field, because of manipulated and distrustful players lacking team spirit.
To download the speech in full or to view it online, visit –
