Sri Lankan opener Danushka Gunathilaka has been suspended from all forms of international cricket by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) pending an inquiry. The sanctions were imposed after the of third day’s play in the second and the final Test between Sri Lanka and South Africa in Colombo.
Without giving any further details of the sanctions, SLC said in a statement: “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 had violated the ‘Code of Conduct’.”
Gunathilaka scored 57 and 61 runs in the second and final Test, with Sri Lanka on the verge of whitewashing the visitors after outplaying them in Galle last week. His match fee for the ongoing Test has had been put on hold while the suspension comes into effect immediately after the match at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground.
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Controversies and Danushka have always have always gone hand-in-hand as in January, he was officially reprimanded for breaching Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct during the Twenty20 International tri-series against Bangladesh when he gave Tamim Iqbal a send-off, which earned him one demerit point.
In 2017, after displaying a poor attitude towards training when Sri Lanka hosted India, he was suspended for six limited-overs matches for misconduct – later revised to three with three matches being part of a suspended sentence – and was subsequently omitted from the one-day international squad to face Pakistan.
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South Africa was 5/139 chasing a next to impossible target of 490 after the end of day’s play on Sunday.
On Friday, another member of Sri Lanka’s Test squad, leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay was suspended one-year ban from international cricket after pleading guilty to misconduct during last month’s tour of the West Indies.