Sri Lanka Cricket said that three male officials "have been identified in the sex bribe scandal that rocked Sri Lankan women's cricket but there are no grounds or evidence to justify criminal proceedings against them," according to Amlan Chakraborty of REUTERS. Sri Lanka's sports ministry last week "revealed an investigation had found that members of the national women's team had been forced to perform sexual favours for officials in order to earn or keep their places in the squad." Sri Lanka Cricket said that it "has received the report which mentions cases of sexual harassments in 2013 and 2014 and much of it was corroborated in another report the board had separately commissioned" (REUTERS, 5/27). In Sydney, Jesse Hogan wrote retired cricketer Lisa Sthalekar hopes official vindication for the Sri Lankan cricket players will ensure such "extreme cases" will never again happen in women's cricket. Sthalekar, an Australian all-rounder who retired after the national team's 2013 World Cup campaign, said the incident should serve as a reminder of the possible issues for female players beyond the "nice little bubble in Australia." Sthalekar: "This has highlighted some issues, and hopefully we'll never see them again in women's cricket -- especially in Sri Lanka." Sthalekar is part of the group trying to launch the Women's Int'l Cricket League, "which is intended to be a lucrative tournament for the world's elite female players." WICL Dir Shaun Martyn argued that "the incident in Sri Lanka reinforced the merits, and lasting benefits, of the proposed tournament." Martyn: "This is why we have been fighting so hard to set this league up around opportunities for women; cricket is just a vehicle for that" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 5/27).
