Sri Lanka’s cricket authorities on Tuesday angrily denied allegations of match-fixing ■ made against two of their players in their World Cup defeat to Pakistan.

State television channel UN speculated over whether Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera may have "changed the game" by gettingout cheaply.

The station added a local businessman had placed an 18,000-dollar bet on Sri Lanka losing the game.

Sri Lanka, who are one of the favourites to win the tournament, fell short of Pakistan's total of277-7 by 11 runs on Saturday, leaving thousands at a packed R Premadasa stadium in Colombo devastated.

"ft is with deep regret that we note that a leading television channel in a special programme, namely 'Wimasuma', has stated that Sri Lanka has lost against Pakistan due to two of our leading players not

getting runs in that game," Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said in a statement.

"Further, they added that the two players had failed intentionally, thereby implying that our players might have been involved in match-fixing," said SLC.

"SLC strongly condemns the bona fides [sic] of this anchor who hosted the programme carrying a story that is baseless and thereby demoralising our players during the ongoing World Cup."

"SLC will take up the matter with the relevant authorities of this channel, based on the fact that this channel has brought great distress to two of our cricketers who have served the country with honour and dignity," it added.

Jayawardene contributed two runs and Samaraweera one to Sri Lanka's total of266-9.

Jayawardene was considering legal action against the station for implying he was guilty of corruption, the BBC said.

The player's manager told AFP on Tuesday that they were not commenting because " a formal process has been initiated".