(Credit: Darwinek/Wikipedia)

Jamaican cricket player Marlon Samuels is suing News.com.au and its reporter James Matthey for suggesting he was “involved with criminal gangs in Jamaica,” the Indian Express reported.

Samuels is also suing former Australian cricket player Geoff Lawson for saying on Big Sports Breakfast radio podcast in April that he is “tied up with some shady people back in the West Indies” and that he is from “one of the murder capitals of the world” and is “tied up with gangs there.”

News.com.au declined to comment to iMediaEthics on legal matters. iMediaEthics has attempted to contact Lawson and Samuels for comment. Big Sports Breakfast‘s parent company declined to comment.

The lawsuit says, according to the Indian Express, that “Samuels has no criminal record nor has been the subject of any criminal investigations. The comments were published and aired with the absence of conducting proper journalist research, nor were Samuels contacted to give his views on the damaging remarks about his character,” it reads.

Samuels said in the lawsuit, according to the Indian Express, that

“Through this case, I intend not only to defend my integrity and my image as a international cricketer but also the values I have defended all my career. I also wish to avoid any public figure from making insulting or false allegations against an athlete using the media, without any evidence or foundation and to go unpunished.”