Former Sri Lanka Sports Minister offers ICC more evidence to prove 2011 World Cup final was fixed

Former Sri Lanka Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage had stunned the cricket universe by claiming that the 2011 World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka in Mumbai was fixed. At the iconic Wankhede Stadium, the Men in Blue, led by MS Dhoni, had won the final by six wickets in hand. This was the first instance of a nation clinching the coveted trophy on their home soil.

Aluthgamage, who was Sri Lanka’s Sports Minister at that time, had recently said that certain groups were certainly involved in fixing the game. Keeping the players out of this matter, the ex-Sports Minister said that it was a game that the Lankans could’ve won.

“I would not involve the cricketers in this. However, certain groups were definitely involved in fixing the game,” Aluthgamage had said. Following his claim, the police had grilled former chief selector Aravinda de Silva, opening batsman Upul Tharanga and the 2011 captain Kumar Sangakkara. De Silva and Sangakkara were grilled for six and 10 hours respectively which also led to protests outside the SLC office.

But the Special Investigation Division of the Police didn’t find any evidence and they had to close the investigation for the time being. However, Aluthgamage hasn’t backed off and has now said that he has more evidence to ICC that Sri Lanka deliberately lost the World Cup final as it was fixed.

Aluthgamage wants ICC to initiate the investigation again

Aluthgamage has said that there were “powerful people who are spending huge sums of money to hush up the investigation”. He even revealed that he has informed Alex Marshall, anti-corruption chief at the International Cricket Council (ICC), that he was ready to provide more evidence showing the match was thrown.

Marshall, in a statement on Friday, had said that “at this time” the ICC has “not been presented with any evidence that supports the claims made or which would merit launching an investigation”.

“Allegations of this nature extremely seriously and should we receive any evidence to corroborate the claims, we will review our current position,” Marshall had added.

Aluthgamage also said police had failed to probe the claims properly and he even urged Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to intervene and pressure the ICC to initiate the investigation again.