Sri Lanka \u201csold\u201d the\u00a02011 World Cup final\u00a0to India, the country\u2019s former sports minister said on Thursday, reviving one of cricket\u2019s most explosive match-fixing controversies. Mahindananda Aluthgamage, who was sports minister at the time, is the second senior figure to allege the final was fixed, after 1996 World Cup-winning skipper Arjuna Ranatunga. \u201cI tell you today that we sold the 2011 World Cup finals,\u201d Aluthgamage told Sirasa TV. \u201cEven when I was sports minister I believed this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aluthgamage, sports minister from 2010 to 2015 and now state minister for renewable energy and power, said he \u201cdid not want to disclose\u201d the plot at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2011, we were to win, but we sold the match. I feel I can talk about it now. I am not connecting players, but some sections were involved,\u201d he said.
\nSri Lanka lost the match at Mumbai\u2019s Wankhede stadium by six wickets. Indian players have strongly denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
Ranatunga, who was at the stadium as a commentator, has previously called for an investigation into the defeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we lost, I was distressed and I had a doubt,\u201d he said in July 2017. \u201cWe must investigate what happened to Sri Lanka at the 2011 World Cup final.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot reveal everything now, but one day I will. There must be an inquiry,\u201d added Ranatunga, who said players could not hide the \u201cdirt\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka batted first and scored 274-6 off 50 overs. They appeared in a commanding position when Indian superstar\u00a0Sachin Tendulkar\u00a0was out for 18.<\/p>\n
But India turned the game dramatically, thanks partly to poor fielding and bowling by Sri Lanka, who were led by\u00a0Kumar Sangakkara.<\/p>\n
Sri Lankan cricket has regularly been involved in corruption controversies, including claims of match-fixing ahead of a 2018 Test against England.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the Sri Lankan cricket board said the International Cricket Council was investigating three unnamed former players over alleged corruption.
\nSri Lanka introduced tough penalties for match-fixing and tightened sports betting restrictions in November in a bid to stamp out graft.<\/p>\n
Another former sports minister, Harin Fernando, has said Sri Lankan cricket was riddled with graft \u201cfrom top to bottom\u201d, and that the ICC considered Sri Lanka one of the world\u2019s most corrupt nations.<\/p>\n
Former Sri Lankan fast bowler Dilhara Lokuhettige was suspended in 2018 for corruption relating to a limited-overs league.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sri Lanka \u201csold\u201d the 2011 World Cup final to India, the country\u2019s former sports minister said on Thursday, reviving one of cricket\u2019s most explosive match-fixing controversies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":23700,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}