2011 World Cup Final: India vs Sri Lanka match was fixed, says Ranatunga
Posted on July 14th, 2017
Courtesy business-standard.com
“I cannot reveal everything now, but one day I will. There must be an inquiry.”
Ranatunga, 53, in a video posted on his Facebook page, said he was shocked by Sri Lanka’s six-wicket defeat in the final at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.
Sri Lanka, batting first, scored 274-6 off 50 overs and appeared in a commanding position when Indian superstar Sachin Tendulkar was caught for 18. India turned the game dramatically thanks partly to poor fielding and bowling by Sri Lanka.
Local media have raised suspicions of Sri Lankans throwing the match, but there was no formal call for an investigation till Ranatunga’s outburst.
Ranatunga’s spokesman Thamira Manju told AFP that he was writing to President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe complaining about the state of cricket in the country.
There have been recriminations in the country since Sri Lanka suffered a humiliating 3-2 loss to bottom-ranked Zimbabwe in a five-match one-day series on home soil this month.
There is also growing tension between Sri Lankan sports authorities and players about the use of managers, including an agent who represents more than half the national team.
Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera has said he wants to regulate agents in cricket in a bid to prevent the possibility of one individual fixing matches using a network of players under his management.
Last year, the International Cricket Council imposed a three-year ban on a top Sri Lankan official Jayananda Warnaweera for failing to cooperate with an anti-corruption investigation.
Warnaweera, a former Test player who was facing a two- year domestic ban over allegations of involvement in match- fixing, failed to attend interviews with an ICC anti- corruption unit.
Sri Lankan players and umpires have been accused of match fixing in the past, but Warnaweera was the high ranking official to be found guilty and penalised.
Sri Lanka’s cricket board suspended a fast bowling coach and sacked a part-time employee for their alleged roles in approach to two Sri Lankan players to arrange a defeat by West Indies at Galle in October 2015.
An unnamed man linked to a bookmaker had offered the two players some 10 million rupees (around $70,000) to lose the match.
Betting is illegal in most of the cricket-mad Indian subcontinent, but backstreet bookmakers — many with underworld links — still flourish.
Although no big-name Sri Lankan player has ever been convicted of corruption, several former stars have made allegations of match fixing or spot-fixing — when players deliberately bowl or field badly to give away a set number of runs.
July 14th, 2017 at 5:00 pm
This part is true. [Quote] India turned the game dramatically thanks partly to poor fielding and bowling by Sri Lanka. [Unquote]
Had Sri Lanka defeated India in WC 2011 final, that would have ended multi million dollar IPL contracts of key Sri Lankan players due to the enormous animosity. IPL doesn’t allow talented Pakistani players due to animosity.
I’m not saying they fixed the match. There is no evidence to say so. But it remains a fact that Sri Lankan interests and senior players’ personal interests were at a clash that day. This was worsened by the fact that Sri Lankan players were not paid their salary for 15 months by then! Some of their almost sole source of income was IPL. At least 5 Sri Lankan players were IPL players at that time. That is half the team. Sri Lankan players have skipped international tours (2 England tours) to play IPL. This clearly proves where their loyalties lie. The problem is not IPL but the inability to prioritise and rationalise.
Anyway an investigation is long due.
July 16th, 2017 at 6:18 pm
Ranatunga has no evidence of this. Seems like a baseless allegation. India in India are certainly no pushovers. They had the talent and skill to overcome Sri lanka. I am a huge Sri Lankan cricket fan. But they faced India on their home turf. Anyone will tell you India in India is almost unbeatable.
Had the World Cup final been played in Sri Lanka or anywhere else. I have no doubt Sri Lanka would have won. They had arguably the best limited overs team in world cricket between 2006-2011 and were very unlucky not to win one either the 2007 or 2011 world cups.
But this just sounds like sour grapes by Ranatunga. As he may believe that Sri Lanka can’t win another WC from here on in and 2011 was their last chance at glory in cricket.
I respect Ranatunga, but he can be a real idiot sometimes. Not to mention running the risk of upsetting the powerful cricket nation in money,fans and popularity in South Asia to the north of Sri lanka which is India. Ranatunga should just keep his mouth shut about the past as 2011 WC is now long gone. He should rather focus on uplifting Sri Lankan cricket in the present and the future and giving Sri Lanka’s talented but many cash strapped youngsters out there the same opportunities he had when growing up in a cricket crazy Sri Lankan school and club environment in his day when he played the game.
July 18th, 2017 at 9:03 pm
I remember when I was a very young schoolboy – alas, a long time ago –we would indulge in a little game, teasing our class mates with the refrain, ‘I know something I won’t tell’. This was sure to got them all excited and curious to find out what great secret we were privy to; the longer we held out, the greater was their torment.
Arjuna Ranatunga (AR) seems to be playing a similarly annoying game. Referring to Sri Lanka’s loss at the 2011 World Cup Final, he declares solemnly, “I cannot reveal everything now, but one day I will”, adding, “There must be an inquiry.”
If what he cannot reveal now is unimportant, there is little cause for worry. But if as he says “There must be an inquiry” you’d imagine his dark secret’s got to be important. If that’s the case, I don’t know why he cannot or will not come out with it now. If there has been some wrong doing, should not the perpetrators be brought to book without delay? And surely if SL cricket has been adversely affected as a result, isn’t it better that the matter be addressed as soon as possible?
It seemed SL had scored enough runs to win that 2011 game; so, the loss came as something of a shock. And, predictably, the rumour mill went into overdrive and all manner of theories were circulating about what allegedly actually went wrong. But the cause of truth is not served by just adding to those rumours, which is what AR is now doing.
AR has managed to revive the speculation of six years ago and create doubts in our minds making us wonder if some hanky-panky did in fact take place. We note, for instance, Dilrook’s comments that “Had Sri Lanka defeated India in WC 2011 final, that would have ended multi million dollar IPL contracts of key Sri Lankan players “ and whilst “not saying they fixed the match” he adds “But it remains a fact that Sri Lankan interests and senior players’ personal interests were at a clash that day”. I think comments of this sort are quite unfortunate. But this is just what rumour and speculation lead to. Not infrequently, speculation gets things wrong, with suspicions even falling on the innocent, and people’s good names becoming unfairly tarnished.
If AR is indeed aware of some dark, sinister secrets he would do us all a great favour by revealing them now. Leaving us in suspense like he has done is neither helpful nor prudent.