By Shihar Aneez
COLOMBO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Sri Lanka's sports ministry said on Friday that an investigation had found evidence that members of the national women's cricket team had been forced to perform sexual favors for officials in order to earn or keep their places in the squad.
Sri Lanka Cricket, the controlling body for the island nation's most popular sport, ordered an investigation in November after reports emerged alleging officials had asked female cricketers for sex in exchange for being on the team.
A three-member committee, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Nimal Dissanayake, submitted its findings in a report to the sport's ministry on Wednesday.
"The committee report found evidence of sexual harassment by members of the Sri Lanka cricket women's management team against several members of the Sri Lanka cricket women's team," the sports ministry said in a statement.
"The (sports) minister intends to take disciplinary actions against those members where evidence has been found."
The statement did not give any details of what evidence had been found, which officials were involved, or what kind of action would be taken.
Local media reports in late October quoted an unnamed senior female cricketer, who claimed that team management and officials selecting players had asked women cricketers to have sex with them if they wanted to make the team.
The allegations, which first appeared in the Sinhala-language newspaper Divaina, said the senior player was dropped from the squad after she refused to perform sexual favors.
Sri Lanka's women cricket team, which lost a four one-day match series by 1-3 to West Indies on Wednesday, is ranked sixth in the world in one-day international games after Australia, South Africa, West Indies, Pakistan, and England by the International Cricket Council.