The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Friday (July 3) made it clear that the 2011 World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka was a fair game and it has not been provided any evidence that would merit an investigation.
The apex body's statement came after Sri Lanka Police's special investigation division dropped a probe into allegations by former sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage that the final was fixed by “certain parties”. The police said it found no evidence backing Aluthgamage's claims.
"We have no reason to doubt the integrity of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup Final 2011. The ICC Integrity Unit has looked into the recent allegations regarding the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup Final 2011," ICC's Anti Corruption Unit General Manager Alex Marshall said in a statement.
"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," the ACU head further stated.
Marshall also dismissed former Sri Lankan Sports Minister's claims that the ICC was sent a letter alleging fixing.
"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," Marshall said.
He reiterated that ICC takes all allegations of match-fixing seriously.
"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," Marshall said while concluding the statement.
Sri Lankan police’s investigation saw then selector Aravinda de Silva, opener Upul Tharanga, Mahela Jayawardena, and then-captain Kumar Sangakkara being called for questioning.
The police probed all the angles into the final, which saw India beat Sri Lanka by 6 wickets with Gautam Gambhir making 97 and MS Dhoni making 91*. Sri Lanka had made four changes in the playing XI and Sangakkara had chosen to bat first after winning the toss at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on April 2, 2011.
"We are satisfied with their explanation. The inquiry is now closed. They had reasonable explanations about the changes that were made to the final squad. We found no evidence of any wrongdoing,” a top police official told AFP.
