Colombo: Sri Lanka`s sports minister on Tuesday said he suspected an "inside job" over the disappearance of crucial financial data relating to the World Cup co-hosted by the island.

"It has to be an inside job. A robot didn`t come and steal the hard disks," sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage told reporters a day after police launched an investigation into an alleged break-in.

He said the police Criminal Investigations Department had begun investigations and taken finger prints after the weekend theft was discovered on Monday.

"Sri Lanka Cricket had backed up the data and we don`t need to worry about losing the information," the minister said.

Local media reported that some papers related to the 2011 World Cup, including audited documents were among the material that had gone missing with the computer hard disks.

Sri Lanka co-hosted the World Cup with India and Bangladesh.

Cost overruns and building three stadiums for the lavish tournament left the governing body with bills amounting to $69 million and have forced them to seek a government bailout.

Bureau Report