Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara insisted the toss mix-up that briefly threatened to engulf the World Cup final in a bizarre controversy was all a matter of a simple misunderstanding.
The usually straightforward procedure had to be performed twice at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday before the final got underway.
After India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni spun the coin, it looked as if he thought he had won the toss.
But match referee Jeff Crowe did not hear a call from Sangakkara, who as the visiting skipper was supposed to nominate ‘heads' or ‘tails', in the noise generated by a 33,000 capacity crowd and so ordered a re-toss.
At the second toss, Dhoni threw the coin up again and Sangakkara called ‘heads' before electing to bat.
It was later established by host broadcaster ESPN-STAR Sports that he had in fact made the same call the first time around after a flurry of Internet activity accusing the Sri Lanka captain of underhand behaviour.
