Jayawardene and Sangakkara fire back after SL sports minister claims 2011 WC final ‘sold’

After reaching the final for the second consecutive time, Sri Lanka had hoped to turn around the 2007 fortune against India in front of a packed Mumbai crowd but India had other plans during that game. After being given an upfront challenge, India, thanks to valiant innings from Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni, secured a rather easy victory, much to the dismay of the Sri Lankan fans. 

Nine years on, a conspiracy theory has now emerged that the game was ‘fixed’ and this time, it is former Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage who made the claim, saying his country "sold" the 2011 World Cup final to India. Incidentally, Aluthgamage was the sports minister during that time and among the invitees at the final alongside then President Mahinda Rajapaksa. 

"Today I am telling you that we sold the 2011 world cup, I said this when I was the sports minister. As a country, I do not want to announce this. I can't exactly remember if it was 2011 or 2012. But we were to win that game," added the politician

"I am telling you with the responsibility I felt that the match was fixed. I can debate this, I know people were concerned about this."

However, that didn’t go down well with the former Sri Lankan captains and two icons of the country, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. While Sangakkara led the team in that encounter, Jayawardene scored a century to keep the Sri Lankan hope alive.

"He needs to take his 'evidence' to the ICC and the Anti-corruption and Security Unit so the claims can be investigated thoroughly,” Sangakkara tweeted.

Jayawardene followed that up with another tweet, saying, “Is the elections around the corner...like the circus has started...names and evidence?”