The investigation happened after Mahindananda Aluthgamage, who was the sports minister in 2011, alleged that the finals was fixed and Sri Lanka underperformed to let India win.
MS Dhoni (L) with Kumar Sangakkara posing with the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 trophy ahead of the finals. (Photo: Twitter/@ApiWenuwen)
In a recent development, the Sri Lankan police have dropped the match-fixing investigation of the 2011 World Cup final suggesting that they have not found any evidence of Sri Lankan players deliberately underperforming to let India win.
“We questioned three — two players and the chief selector –about team selection and changes. We are satisfied with their explanation,” a top police official told AFP.
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“The inquiry is now closed.”
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“They had reasonable explanations about the changes that were made to the final squad,” the officer added.
“We found no evidence of any wrongdoing.”]
Notably, Sri Lanka made as many as four changes to the team of final that lost to India at Mumbai’s Wankhede stadium.
The decision to end the investigation came after the vice-captain of the Sri Lankan team and the only centurion of that final Mahela Jayawardene arrived at the office of the Special Investigation Unit to give a statement.
“We will give our maximum cooperation,” Jayawardena told reporters before leaving the SIU when officers refused to accept his testimony.
Jayawardene was called in for investigation after Sangakkara was interrogated for nearly 10 hours by a team of policemen on Thursday.
The investigation happened after Mahindananda Aluthgamage, who was the sports minister in 2011, alleged that the finals was fixed and Sri Lanka underperformed to let India win.
Kumar Sangakkara, who is also president of England’s prestigious Marylebone Cricket Club, had asked the then Sports Minister to refer his allegations to the International Cricket Council (ICC).
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