ICC to question former Sri Lanka Sports Minister over his match-fixing comments on 2011 WC final

April 2, 2011. The date has been etched in gold in history of Indian cricket forever. India won the 50-over World Cup for the second time on that day beating Sri Lanka in the final. But former Sri Lanka Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage recently shocked everyone by stating that the match was fixed. However, he didn’t provide any evidence stating he doesn’t want to reveal the names of cricketers.

The ICC seems to have taken the allegations seriously as the world cricketing body is set to investigate the matter and question Aluthgamage over his comments. Earlier, former Sri Lanka skipper Aravinda de Silva also requested the ICC and BCCI to look into the matter after Aluthgamage’s controversial statement.

Aluthgamage was Sri Lanka’s sports minister when the World Cup 2011 happened. He had questioned the selections made ahead of the match. Sri Lanka had to make four forced changes to their playing XI before the final. An ICC official, while speaking to News Wire, stated that the body are willing to look into the matter now. “We look forward to talking to him to see if there are any matters worthy of investigation,” the official said.

What did Aluthgamage actually say?

Earlier Aluthgamage, in his controversial claim, stated that the team which eventually played in the middle was not the one which they had finalised. He also claimed that no one was consulted before making the last-minute changes while also mentioning that he isn’t referring to any of Sri Lankan players.

“I would not involve the cricketers in this. However, certain groups were definitely involved in fixing the game. The team who played the final match was not the team we had selected, finalized and sent off. At the last moment, without the consultation of either me as the then minister of Sports or officials of the Sri Lanka Cricket Control Board, four new players had been included to the team,” he had stated.

Former cricketers Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara also reacted after his comments with the former calling it ‘Circus‘. Jayawardene rather had scored a scintillating ton in a bid to help his team post a more than competitive total on the board.