No reason to doubt integrity of 2011 World Cup final: ICC
Jul 03, 2020
Dubai [UAE], July 3 : International Cricket Council (ICC) Anti-Corruption Unit's General Manager, Alex Marshall, on Friday said the body do not have "any evidence" to launch probe under its Anti-Corruption Code in the alleged match-fixing in the 2011 World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka.
"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," Marshall said in a statement.
He went on to explain that "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".
However, the ICC is open to investigate the matter if they receive any evidence regarding the allegations in the future. The governing body has urged to contact its Integrity team if anybody has any evidence.
"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.
Earlier in the day, Sri Lankan Police ended its investigation into the 2011 World Cup final fixing allegation stating that there is no evidence in favour of the allegation.
The allegations were made by former Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage that the 2011 World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka was 'sold' to former for money.
India had defeated Sri Lanka in the final of the 2011 World Cup at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat first in the match. Mahela Jayawardene top-scored for Sri Lanka as he struck a century to take the team's score to 274/6.
India, in their chase, got off to a bad start as they lost Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag with just 31 runs on the board. But Gautam Gambhir and Dhoni stitched together a match-winning 109-run partnership.
Gambhir perished after scoring 97 runs. But Dhoni and Yuvraj took the team over the line. India won its first World Cup in 1983 and then had to wait for 28 years to win again in 2011.
