Alex Marshall, GENERAL MANAGER, ICC ACU, on Friday (July 3) denied Sri Lanka’s former Sports Minister Manhidanada Aluthgamage’s claims, stating that there is no record of any letter sent by him related to 2011 World Cup final.
“The ICC Integrity Unit has looked into the recent allegations regarding the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Final 2011. At this time, we have not been presented with any evidence that supports the claims made or which would merit launching an investigation under the ICC Anti-Corruption Code” Alex Marshall said in a statement on Friday.
“There is no record of any letter regarding this matter sent by the then Sri Lanka Sports Minister to the ICC and senior ICC staff at the time have confirmed they have no recollection of receiving any such letter which would have led to an investigation. We have no reason to doubt the integrity of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Final 2011.
“We take all allegations of this nature extremely seriously and should we receive any evidence to corroborate the claims, we will review our current position.
“If anyone has any evidence that this match or any other has been subject to match-fixing, we would urge them to get in contact with the ICC Integrity team” he concluded.
Cricket Age had published on June 22 itslef that the International Cricket Council has refuted Former Sri Lanka Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage’s claims.
Desperately seeking to gain political mileage ahead of a crucial parliamentary election, Mahindananda, last month, 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.
Today, the Sri Lankan police, after grilling several senior Sri Lankan cricketers, finally came to the conclusion of dropping the probe due to lack of evidence. Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Aravindra de Silva and Upul Tharanga were some of the Sri Lankan players who were questioned for hours by the Sri Lankan police.
