The Captain of Sri Lanka during 2011 World Cup, Kumar Sangakkara has asked former Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage to produce evidence for an anti-corruption inquiry.
Sri Lanka’s Sports Ministry on Saturday has ordered an investigation into former sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage’s allegation that the national cricket team loss to India in the 2011 World Cup Final was fixed by “certain parties”. The current Sports Minister Dullas Alahapperuma has ordered an investigation & asked for a report about the progress in investigation every two weeks, the ministry said in a statement.
The sports secretary, KADS Ruwanchandra, on Alahapperuma’s directive, had complained to the ministry’s investigation unit on Saturday. Recently Aluthgamage has alleged that his country “sold” the finals to India, a claim which was dismissed by Former Captains Kumar Sangakkara & Mahela Jayawardene who demanded evidence from him.
In an interview with local TV channel ”Sirasa”, Aluthgamage said the final was fixed. “Today I am telling you that we sold the 2011 world cup, I said this when I was the sports minister,” Aluthgamage, who was the sports minister at the time, said. “As a country, I do not want to announce this. I can’t exactly remember if it was 2011 or 2012. But we were to win that game,” added the politician, who was the state minister of power in the current caretaker government which is in-charge until the election to be held on August 5.
Sangakkara was the captain at that time he asked the minister to produce evidence for an anti-corruption probe.
“He needs to take his ‘evidence’ to the ICC and the Anti-corruption and Security Unit so the claims can be investigated thoroughly,” he tweeted. Jayawardene who scored a century in that game dismissed all the claims. “Is the elections around the corner…like the circus has started…names and evidence?” he asked in a tweet.
Aluthgamage clearly stated that in his opinion no players were involved in match-fixing “but certain parties were involved”. Aluthgamage had said that the game was fixed. Both Aluthgamage & then President Mahinda Rajapaksa were among the people who were invited to witness the final match being played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
