Sri Lankan cricketers Kusal Mendis, Danushka Gunathilaka and Niroshan Dickwella look set to face an extended ban from all forms of cricket and shed a hefty fine for breaching the bio-bubble on the tour of England, stated newswire.lk in a report.
The recommendation to ban the trio for an elongated period, besides imposing on them a fine of US$ 25,000, has been taken by a five-member committee, which was appointed by SLC last month to conduct a disciplinary enquiry into three players’ actions.
The report in the newswire.lk mentioned, while Mendis and Gunathilaka “have been recommended to be banned for more than a year from all forms of cricket”, Dickwella too is staring at “a long suspension” across formats.
The disciplinary committee’s recommendations will have to be ratified by SLC’s execute committee, which will ultimately decide the fate of the three suspended players.
The SLC ordered an investigation on disciplinary grounds on opening batsman Gunathilaka, middle-order mainstay Mendis and wicketkeeper-batter Dickwella in late June when videos of them roaming around at night in Durham did the rounds over social media.
The three players were caught on camera moving around in Durham on June 27, just two days before the opening one-dayer in Chester-le-Street, and faced heavy criticism for their actions.
Not just fans, even some of the former Sri Lanka cricketers called out the trio for their carelessness after breaching the bubble put in place for Sri Lanka’s limited-overs tour of the UK.
Taking note of the breach, the SLC launched an investigation into the matter and asked the three players to immediately return home, enforcing suspension on them for the ODI series that took place as well as for the entire six-match home series against India.
