Former India U19 World Cup winner arrested: LPL 2026 team co-owner Manjot Kalra involved in alleged bribery scandal
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Former India U19 World Cup winner arrested: LPL 2026 team co-owner Manjot Kalra involved in alleged bribery scandal originally appeared on Cricket News. Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Jaffna Kings co-owner Manjot Kalra was arrested in Colombo on suspicion of match-fixing.
- Police say he was about to pay a player 9.5 million rupees, roughly 28,700 dollars.
- Kalra scored a century in India's 2018 Under-19 World Cup final win over Australia.
LPL 2026 team co-owner Manjot Kalra involved in alleged bribery scandal
Eight years ago, Manjot Kalra was the teenager lighting up an Under-19 World Cup final with a match-winning century. On Friday, hours before the sixth Lanka Premier League was due to begin, he was arrested in a Colombo hotel on suspicion of trying to bribe a player.
Sri Lanka Police's Special Investigation Unit for the Prevention of Offences Relating to Sports detained Kalra, a co-owner of the Jaffna Kings franchise, just before the tournament's opening fixture between Jaffna and Galle. The arrest has cast an immediate shadow over the competition.
According to police, the alleged approach was substantial and premeditated. The accusation is that one of India's brightest young talents of the last decade has become the central figure in a corruption scandal on the eve of a major franchise league.
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What the police have alleged
The details, as reported by IANS, are damning. The unit's inspector, Supun Vidanage, alleged Kalra was caught in the act of attempting to hand over a significant sum to a player who had already reported the approach to authorities.
"The suspect, identified as Manjot Kalra, was arrested at a hotel in Colombo as he was 'about to pay' a player 9.5 million rupees (USD 28,700)," Vidanage said in local media reports. He added that Kalra would be produced before a magistrate soon.
The player, who has not been named, played a crucial role in the sting. According to Vidanage, the individual alerted police when he was first approached by Kalra approximately 10 days earlier, allowing investigators to monitor the situation before making the arrest.
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The tournament pushes ahead
Sri Lanka Cricket moved quickly to contain the damage, confirming that LPL 2026 would begin as scheduled on Friday evening at the SSC Grounds in Colombo despite the high-profile arrest of one of its franchise owners. The league's governing body, IPG, stressed that all owners had passed integrity checks before being cleared to participate.
It reiterated that every franchise owner had undergone the requisite approval process, including due diligence assessments conducted by SLC's Anti-Corruption Unit in consultation with the ICC. IPG also underlined its stance on the issue.
It maintained a zero-tolerance approach to corruption, unethical conduct, and any activity that may compromise the integrity of the tournament, insisting the credibility of the LPL remained of paramount importance.
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From boy wonder to a career defined by controversy
The arrest is the latest dark chapter in a career that promised so much more. Kalra scored an unbeaten 101 in the 2018 Under-19 World Cup final against Australia in New Zealand, a defining knock that helped India lift a fourth title alongside future senior stars. That his professional playing career never took off is well documented.
Kalra made his Delhi debut in 2019 before becoming embroiled in an age-fraud controversy, with a Delhi Police chargesheet alleging he was a year older than declared, which would have rendered him ineligible for that very Under-19 tournament.
He subsequently reinvented himself as a sports entrepreneur and podcast host, acquiring a stake in Jaffna Kings through his company, Sports Commune, only in May. Sri Lanka enforces some of the world's strictest anti-corruption laws, and in January, a British LPL owner received a four-year suspended sentence for match-fixing.
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