The International Cricket Council has refuted Former Sri Lanka Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage’s claims, stating that he never made a formal complaint on 2011 World Cup final and the cricket governing body is looking into the matter.
Desperately seeking to gain political mileage ahead of a crucial parliamentary election, Mahindananda, last week, stunned cricket fraternity by claiming that Sri Lanka had ‘sold’ the World Cup trophy to India in the final. He further said that he isn’t accusing the players of malpractice but certain officials who sold themselves out. Mahindananda also claimed that he had issued a formal complaint to the International Cricket Council (ICC) on the same matter back in 2012 but is yet to hear from them.
“No official complaint was made by Mr. Mahindananda Aluthgamage regarding the 2011 World Cup final” an ICC official told Cricket Age.
India went on to win the 2011 World Cup final after successfully chasing a 275-run target with 7 wickets to spare. India lost the likes of Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar early during their chase but nineties from Gautam Gambhir and skipper MS Dhoni helped their team to create history at the Wankhede Stadium.
“We are trying to speak to him to see if there are any matters worthy of investigation” the ICC official added further.
Sri Lankan cricket greats Aravinda de Silva, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene have already rebuffed the comments made by Mahindananda, terming these statements ‘politically oriented’.
“Here is a man who has no reputation or credibility trying to cast wild allegations at all those who were involved with that game. I am ready to face any inquiry. But these liars should not be spared. As I said they are tarnishing our hard-earned reputations” said an angry Aravinda, who was the chairman of the selectors at that time.
Calling for a probe into the allegations to clear the misconceptions once and for all, Aravinda said such allegations affect people, including the Indian cricketers ‘who deservingly won’ the World Cup title.
“When serious allegations like these are being made, it affects a lot of people. In this case not only us, the selectors, the players and the team management but Indian cricketers who deservingly won the world title. We need to clear this once and for all for the greater good of the game we love” former world cup winning Iconic batsman added.
