No reason to doubt the integrity of the 2011 World Cup final: ICC

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has said that they haven’t been given any evidence for investigations into the 2011 World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Earlier, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, who was the Sports Minister during the epic match, brought forth the match-fixing allegations and sent down the shockwaves.

Alex Marshall, the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit’s General Manager, said that the apex cricket board hasn’t found anything suspicious and reckons that the integrity of the match shouldn’t be questioned for the time being.

“The ICC Integrity Unit has looked into the recent allegations regarding the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Final 2011. At this time, we have not been presented with any evidence that supports the claims made or which would merit launching an investigation under the ICC Anti-Corruption Code,” Marshall was quoted as saying in a statement.

We take all allegations of this nature extremely seriously: ICC

“There is no record of any letter regarding this matter sent by the then Sri Lanka Sports Minister to the ICC and senior ICC staff at the time have confirmed they have no recollection of receiving any such letter which would have led to an investigation. We have no reason to doubt the integrity of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Final 2011,” he stated.

However, the ICC mentioned that they would be re-opening the case if they come through any evidence. “We take all allegations of this nature extremely seriously and should we receive any evidence to corroborate the claims, we will review our current position,” Marshall added.

Previously, a special investigations unit set up by Sri Lanka’s Sports Ministry summoned Aravinda de Silva, Upul Tharanga, Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara. Aluthgamage’s accusations appeared to be based on the changes by Lanka made going into the match. In the final, Jayawardena turned up with a century, though it came in a losing cause.

Sangakkara also played a decent hand before he fell prey to Yuvraj Singh. Tharanga, on the other hand, managed only a couple of runs off 20 balls. The Lankans ended up losing the match by six wickets. MS Dhoni’s unbeaten 91 and Gautam Gambhir’s 97 took India over the finishing line.