Sri Lanka’s Former Sports Minister Said Saturday He Gave Further Details To Cricket’s World Governing Body That He Indicates The 2011 World Cup Was Scheduled:
Sri Lanka ‘s former sports minister said Saturday he gave further details to cricket’s world governing body that he said indicates the 2011 World Cup was scheduled. Mahindananda Aluthgamage’s remarks come a day after the local police dropped an inquiry into the allegations, citing a lack of evidence that Sri Lanka intentionally lost the final to India’s hosts.
The police had been roasting former Chief Selector Aravinda de Silva, opening the batsman Upul Tharanga and the 2011 Captain Kumar Sangakkara — the latter for almost 10 hours.
Yet Aluthgamage, who was Sports Minister at the time and is now Minister of State for Electricity, said there were “strong people who spend large amounts of money on the inquiry.”
He said he had informed Alex Marshall, the anti-corruption chief at the International Cricket Council (ICC), that he was ready to provide more evidence to show that the match had been launched. Aluthgamage said that the police had failed to adequately investigate the allegations and urged Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to intervene and persuade the ICC to reopen the inquiry.
Marshall said in a statement on Friday that “at this time” the ICC “has not been presented with any proof that supports the allegations made or that warrants the initiation of an investigation.”
Yet he said that the ICC “takes accusations of this kind extremely seriously and, should we provide any evidence to corroborate the charges, we will reassess our current position.” Sri Lankan police have not publicly responded to Aluthgamage ‘s allegations.
The questioning of the nation’s cricket heroes provoked criticism of the social media government in the run-up to the elections on 5 August, when Rajapaksa ‘s party hopes to secure a two-thirds majority in parliament.
