Sri Lanka to probe 2011 World Cup defeat
Sri Lanka’s Sports Minister gave his support Wednesday for an investigation into the country’s controversial 2011 World Cup loss against India, amid fresh allegations of match fixing.
The South Asian nation lost the World Cup decider by six wickets at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, stunning the cricket-mad island. Then Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara resigned soon after the match.
Pressure has since been mounting for an inquiry into the shock defeat, with a former cricket captain and a previous Sports Minister going public with their suspicions that Sri Lanka deliberately lost the match.
“The allegations merit an investigation,” Dayasiri Jayasekera told reporters in Colombo.
“As soon as I get a written complaint, I will start a probe.”
Sri Lanka, batting first, scored 274-6 off 50 overs and appeared in a commanding position when Indian superstar Sachin Tendulkar was caught for 18.
India turned the game dramatically thanks partly to poor fielding and bowling by Sri Lanka.
The Sports Minister at the time Mahindananda Aluthgamage has raised fresh concerns, telling local media there were “several disturbing factors about that game”.
Four last-minute changes were made to the Sri Lankan side without prior approval being sought from the Sports Minister, breaching convention.
“Then there are also questions about the behaviour of a very senior player. During the match, instructions sent to the field were ignored,” Aluthgamage said, without naming the player in question.
The former minister said he launched an inquiry after the match, but the investigation was scuttled.
His concerns followed quick on the heels of comments from former Sri Lanka skipper Arjuna Ranatunga, who last Friday demanded an inquiry be held to expose the ‘dirt’ on dodgy cricketers.
Last year, the International Cricket Council imposed a three-year ban on a top Sri Lankan official Jayananda Warnaweera for failing to cooperate with an anti-corruption investigation.
Sri Lankan players and umpires have been accused of match fixing in the past, but Warnaweera was the first high ranking official to be found guilty and penalized.
Betting is illegal in most of the cricket-mad Indian subcontinent, but backstreet bookmakers — many with underworld links — still flourish.
Although no big-name Sri Lankan player has ever been convicted of corruption, several former stars have made allegations of match fixing or spot-fixing — when players deliberately bowl or field badly to give away a set number of runs.
(AFP)
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“The allegations merit an investigation,” Dayasiri Jayasekera told reporters in Colombo. “As soon as I get a written complaint, I will start a probe.”: Well, this the hitch! Who is going to Bell the Cat?
to bet on cricket is easier than betting on horses for it is easier to forecast the outcome of an event and if you are clever ebough work out the probablity. something suma***pala is familiar with him and his bookies.
There are millions involved in Suma***palas gambling acket churning billions of rupees mot of which unaccounted .Even the taxes levied by the inland revenue the punter forks out whether he wins or looses.
We have steeped in probes war crimes, saitm,. There is nothing new about match fixing in cricket and dates back to the time of Grace and now that there is a global cricet governing body that investigates the outcome of evry match including doping! and in this case the ICC sgoild have done some investigation and now after a decade the ministry has okayed this investigation! why not investigate our winning of the world cyp when the prolbablity of doing spo was not that gppd
Ajantha Mendis also in the 2011 world cup with the limited opportunity he got performed better than Murali in getting wickets in the semi finals against New Zealand taking wickets and having in the whole tournament the least economy rate of 3.1 to Murali 4.1 but the selectors left him out in the finals and we lost the finals no reasons given by the selectors .Sanga the then captain resigned . As such ask Sanga and Mahalela
why not probe the defeat of the 2015 world cup here to Ajantha Mendis the very next day he was named by the elite ICC panel to be the best ODI bowler for the year 2014 and also this panel named him as the only Sri Lankan cricketer to be in the world ODI eleven for the year 2014 the very next day he was sent out of the Sri Lanka squad and out of the squad to new zealand and out of the world cup 2015 at that time our sport minister was Alutgamage Mr Alutgamage what have you got to say. Mr Sports Minister Jayasiri Jayasekera what have got to say about the 2015 world cup debacle without Ajantha Mendis if you need credible evidence obtain it from Crickinfo