Sri Lankan cricket has suspended batting all-rounder Danushka Gunathilaka from all forms of the International cricket for breaching “player code of conduct”.
Gunathilaka and his friend took two Norwegian women to the hotel where the player was staying in Colombo in the early hours of Sunday. One of the women later accused the second man, a British passport-holder of Sri Lankan origin, of raping her, the police arrested him. The opening batsman was suspended as he was present in the room where the incident happened.
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Earlier, International Cricket Council (ICC) had admonished the Sri Lankan player for breaching level 1 of the ICC code of conduct by giving Bangladeshi player Tamim Iqbal a send-off while he was on his way to the dressing room. The incident happened in January during the final match of the T20I tri-series against Bangladesh.
Gunathilaka was allowed to play in the ongoing match but he suspension will be implemented immediately after the ongoing second test of the two-match series against South Africa at Sinhalese Sports Club Ground. In the ongoing Test match, which Sri Lanka are in a superb position to win and seal the series 2-0, Gunathilaka has played a big part, scoring 57 and 61.
In 2017, after displaying a poor attitude towards training when Sri Lanka hosted India, the batsman was suspended for six ODI matches for misconduct, later revised to three and was subsequently omitted from the one-day international squad against Pakistan.
The governing body’s rules stipulate that during matches players must be back in their hotel rooms by midnight and cannot have guests. The 27-year-old will be stripped off his match fees for the ongoing test match.
“The decision to suspend the player was taken following an initial inquiry conducted by Sri Lanka Cricket after the team management reported that the player has violated the ”Code of Conduct’,” the SLC statement said.