World Cup 2011: Sri Lankan minister offers ICC evidence

COLOMBO (AFP): Former Sri Lankan sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage has asserted that he has offered more evidence to International Cricket Council (ICC) that shows the 2011 World Cup was fixed.

The Sri Lankan minister’s remarks come a day after local police dropped the investigation in this regard, citing a lack of evidence. Police had interrogated former chief selector Aravinda de Silva, cricketer Upul Tharanga and former captain Kumar Sangakkara for nearly 10 hours.

However, the country’s former sports minister claimed that there were powerful people who are spending huge sums of money to hush up the investigation. “Police had failed to probe the claims properly,” he added.

Aluthgamage has also urged Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to intervene and pressure the cricket’s world governing body to reopen an investigation.

He further said that he has informed Alex Marshall, anti-corruption chief at the ICC, which he was ready to provide more evidence showing the match was thrown.

However, Alex Marshall in this regard said that at this time the ICC has not been presented with any evidence that supports the claims made or which would merit launching an investigation.

Alex Marshall said, “However, the ICC takes allegations of this nature extremely seriously and should we receive any evidence to corroborate the claims, we will review our current position.”