Sri Lanka Cricket bans Danushka Gunathilaka following rape charges on friend

The SLC released a statement, confirming the ban on the star Sri Lankan opener

In a huge blow to the Sri Lankan cricket team, batsman Danushka Gunathilaka has been slapped with a one-year ban from all forms of international cricket by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) for breaching the 'Player Code of Conduct', pending inquiry, on Sunday.

Further learned from the reports, Gunathilaka's match fee for the ongoing Test against South Africa will also be withheld by the board. The suspension will come into effect immediately after the match at SSC.

The SLC has also released a statement and confirmed the news. "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',” said the release.

Though the SLC did not indulge into the events that led to Gunathilaka’s ban, according to AFP, a Norwegian woman accused his friend of raping her in a hotel room where he was present

Dhanushka Gunathilaka, 27, and his friend, who cannot be named, 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 and police arrested him.

The 26-year-old "is under arrest and we are continuing our investigations," a police official told AFP. "A Norwegian tourist made the complaint of rape."

He said there was no allegation against Gunathilaka, who is currently Sri Lanka's best-performing batsman in an ongoing tour by South Africa.

The governing body's rules stipulate that during matches players must be back in their hotel rooms by midnight and cannot have guests.

Gunathilaka has had a sequence of disciplinary issues in the recent past. With his current suspension, he became the second Lankan cricketer to be suspended after Jeffery Vandersay, in a span of 3 days.