British-Bangladeshi Team Owner Gets Suspended Sentence

A Sri Lankan court on Wednesday handed a four-year suspended prison sentence to Tamim Rahman, the British owner of a team in the Lanka Premier League (LPL), over match-fixing in the domestic T20 cricket tournament.

Rahman, a British citizen born in Bangladesh and former owner of the Dambulla Thunders franchise, admitted he attempted to influence a player and organize betting activities during the 2024 Lanka Premier League season, the court heard.

The Colombo High Court convicted Rahman after a guilty plea, sentencing him to four years in jail but suspending the sentence for five years, meaning he will avoid immediate imprisonment unless he breaches the conditions of the suspension.

In addition to the suspended sentence, the court imposed a fine of 24 million Sri Lankan rupees (about $80,000) on Rahman under Sri Lanka’s 2019 law designed to prevent corruption in sports.

Rahman was originally arrested in May 2024 when authorities detained him at Colombo’s airport as he was attempting to board a flight out of the country.

He later spent several weeks in custody before being granted bail and ultimately brought before the High Court. His arrest marked the first detention of a Premier League official in Sri Lanka based on match-fixing allegations since the league’s inception.

According to court officials, the allegations emerged when the player Rahman allegedly tried to influence the reporting of the incident to authorities, triggering an anti-corruption probe.

The Sri Lankan court’s verdict also included mention of an outstanding arrest warrant for the team’s manager, Mujeeb Ur Rehman, a Pakistani national implicated in the same case.

The case highlights ongoing challenges with corruption in domestic cricket, and Sri Lankan authorities have used this prosecution to underscore their commitment to enforcing laws against match-fixing and related betting offences in the sport.