COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s cricket chief on Thursday lambasted former skipper Arjuna Ranatunga for casting a corruption shadow over the country’s 2011 World Cup defeat and in turn questioned Ranatunga’s actions as a player.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) president Thilanga Sumathi­pala said Ranatunga, who captained the country to its 1996 World Cup victory, should have followed “the right protocol” instead of raising doubts.

Ranatunga, who is now Sri Lanka’s petroleum minister, said on Wednesday that he believed the 2011 final when India beat Sri Lanka was tainted though he did not give details.

Sumathipala said Ranatunga’s own conduct when he failed to defend the World Cup in 1999 could also be questioned.

“He [Ranatunga] could not come to the final round in 1999. We were out from the first round. We lost badly in some matches... and people were also saying at that time ‘don’t know whether this man has thrown the match’,” Sumathipala said.

Sumathipala and Rana­tunga are political arch-rivals. Ranatunga’s brother Nishantha is standing against Sumathipala for the board presidency and a court on Wednesday suspended the vote.

Corruption allegations are regularly part of their fight.

Local media had raised suspicions of Sri Lankans throwing the 2011 final, but there was no formal call for an investigation until Ranatunga made an outburst last year which he repeated on Wednesday.

Sumathipala said Rana­tunga was suggesting that 2011 captain Kumar Sangakkara, who is affectionately known as Sanga, and his deputy Mahela Jayawardene had thrown the match.

“Why is he [Ranatunga] trying to drag them into this seven years after the match,” Sumathipala said. “We are implying that Sanga and Mahela have thrown the match. “It’s not fair. Sanga and Mahela have done so much for world cricket and they are respectable people in the eyes of the public.”

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2018