Aravinda De Silva, the former national selection committee chairman (NSCC), was questioned by the Sri Lankan police on Tuesday. This comes after former Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage’s alleged that the national team’s loss to India in the 2011 World Cup final was fixed by “certain parties”.
De Silva, the man of the match in Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup triumph, was the first to be questioned by the newly created sports anti-corruption unit. Superintendent Jagath Fonseka said spoke to reporters and said, “Today we started the investigation into (2011 World Cup) match-fixing allegations.”
He further mentioned that following on from today’s statement, they decided to summon Upul Tharanga, from the 2011 Sri Lanka finalist squad to record his statement the following day.
De Silva, the then chairman of selectors, was quizzed for over six hours by the police.
Earlier, Aluthgamage’s claims invited a rapid rebuttal on account from Sri Lanka’s former captain Kumar Sangakara and the final match centurion in Kumar Sangakara.
Aluthgamage made the allegation on June 18th, however backtracked on his statement implying it was just his suspicion.
A special police investigation unit recorded Mr. Aluthgamage’s statement last week.
