Sri Lanka’s former sports minister said on Saturday that he has offered more evidence to cricket’s world regulating body which indicates that the 2011 world cup final was fixed.
Mahindananda Aluthgamage’s remarks come a day after local police dismissed the investigation of the fixing allegations. They took the measure as there was a lack of evidence to show Sri Lanka deliberately lost the final to India at the Wankhede Stadium in 2011.
According to a report by InsideSports, police had interrogated former selector Aravinda de Silva, starting Batsman Upul Tharanga and the captain of the 2011 Sri Lankan team, Kumar Sangakkara. The wicket-keeper batsman was questioned for almost 10 hours.
However, Aluthgamage, who had been sports minister at that time and is now the state minister of energy, stated there were powerful men who’re spending huge sums of cash to silence the investigation. He also said that he has informed Alex Marshall, anti-corruption chief at the International Cricket Council (ICC) that he was ready to supply evidence showing the match was thrown away by Sri Lanka.
Aluthgamage said the police had failed to investigate the claims properly and urged Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to intervene and pressurise the ICC to resume the investigation.
Marshall had said in a statement on Friday that in this time, the ICC has not been presented with any evidence that supports the claims made or that would merit launching an investigation. However, he said that the ICC takes allegations of this nature very seriously and if they receive any evidence to confirm the claim, they will review their position.
Sri Lankan police haven’t responded to Aluthgamage’s claims. The questioning of the nation’s cricketing heroes triggered critique against the government on social websites ahead of elections on 5th August when Rajapaksa’s party is hoping to secure a two-thirds majority in parliament.
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