COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s sports ministry on Saturday ordered an investigation into former sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage’s allegation the national cricket team’s loss to India in the 2011 World Cup final was fixed by “certain parties”.

The sports minister Dullas Alahapperuma has ordered the investigation and asked for a report on its progress 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, Press Trust of India reported.

Aluthgamage has alleged that his country “sold” the game to India, a claim that was ridiculed by former captains Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene who demanded evidence from him.

In an interview with local TV channel Sirasa on Thursday, Aluthgamage said the final was fixed. Set a target of 275, India claimed the trophy thanks to the brilliance of Gautam Gambhir (97) and then skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (91).

“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.

The captain of Sri Lanka at that time, Sangakkara, asked him 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, also a former captain who scored a hundred in that game, ridiculed the charge.

“Is the elections around the corner… like the circus has started .. .names and evidence?” he asked in a tweet.

Aluthgamage said that in his opinion no players were involved in fixing the result, “but certain parties were”.

Aluthgamage had also previously hinted that the game was fixed. Both Aluthgamage and the then president Mahinda Rajapaksa were among the invitees at the final played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

On Friday, Aluthgamage reiterated he stood by the allegations he made.

“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,” Aluthgamage told Sri Lankan newspaper Daily Mirror.

“We saw this only when we watched the match. How could four players get replaced without due approvals and consultations? The new players were inexperienced compared to the rest of the team. Why did they do that out of the blue?”

Sri Lanka had called Suraj Randiv and Chaminda Vaas for the final as standby for Muttiah Muralitharan and Angelo Mathews, who suffered injuries. While Muralitharan played the final, Mathews missed out.

The former minister also alleged that an Indian newspaper knew about the changes even before the Sri Lankan authorities. He added that he initiated the bill ‘Prevention of Offences Related to Sports’ after that game, making Sri Lanka the first South Asian country to criminalise match-fixing.

“I wrote to the ICC in 2012 regarding this matter, yet they failed to respond,” he said.

“Mahela has said that the circus has started. I don’t understand why Sanga and Mahela are making a big deal about this,” he added. “I am not referring to any of our players. Everyone is talking about just two minutes of a half an hour interview I gave to a TV channel. Even Arjuna Ranatunga has openly talked about match fixing issues earlier.”

Former Sri Lankan captain Ranatunga, who led them to the 1996 World Cup title, has also called for a probe on alleged match-fixing in the 2011 World Cup final in the past.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2020