Sri Lankan police dropped a match-fixing investigation:
On Friday (03-07-2020), Sri Lanka police dismissed the highly controversial investigation on the 2011 World Cup final match-fixing case by saying that they have not found any kind of evidence to prove that any Sri Lankan players help their opponent India to win the title.
Over this police investigation, former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara, ex-chief selector of Sri Lanka Aravinda de Silva, and opening batsman of the team Upul Tharanga were investigated this week over the doubts that have determined the match for so many years.
A higher authority police official told AFP “We are very much satisfied with all the three person’s explanations about the match-fixing case. Now the inquiry is closed. All of them Sangakkara, de Silva, and Tharanga had their proper explanations regarding the changes that were decided to the final squad.” Also, the officer added, “In this investigation, we have not found any kind of wrong things.”
For the final match, the Sri Lanka team had made four changes to the squad that lead to defeat from India at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
The unexpected decision to stop the match-fixing investigation came after that time vice-captain Mahela Jayawardena came to the office of the Special Investigation to give his statement.
Before leaving from the Special Investigation Unit, Jayawardena told to the media reporters that they will give their full support when officers declined to accept his statement.
On Thursday, Sangakkara was investigated for about 10 hours by the detective team members and then Jayawardena was called for the investigation.
The investigation about the 2011 World Cup match-fixing was started after the statement of Mahindananda Aluthgamage, who was that time sports minister of Sri Lanka in the year 2011 and claimed that the final match was fixed, which lead to the Indian victory.
Kumar Sangakkara, who is the president of the reputed Marylebone Cricket Club of England had asked Mahindananda Aluthgamage to take the issue to the ICC.
