Sri Lankan batsman Danushka Gunathilaka has been banned from all forms of cricket. He got arrested in Sydney for sexual assault charges on Sunday. Sri Lankan cricket has stated that the cricket board of Sri Lanka will not consider him for selection across all formats of the game.
Sri Lanka Cricket issued a statement that said, “the Executive Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket decided to suspend national player Danushka Gunathilaka from all forms of cricket with immediate effect and will not consider him for any selections after being informed that Mr. Gunathilaka was arrested and charged with sexual assault of a woman in Australia.”
“Furthermore, Sri Lanka Cricket will take the necessary steps to promptly carry out an inquiry into the alleged offense, and, upon conclusion of the aforementioned court case in Australia, steps will be taken to penalize the said player if found guilty.”
“Sri Lanka Cricket wishes to emphasize that it adopts a “zero tolerance” policy for any such conduct by a player and will provide all the required support to the Australian law enforcement authorities to carry out an impartial inquiry into the incident”, it further added.
The sexual assault was reported at a property in Rose Bay earlier in the week.
Earlier, according to the New South Wales police statement as quoted by ESPNcricinfo, “The woman met with the man after communicating with him for a number of days via an online dating application; it's alleged he then sexually assaulted her on the evening of November 2, 2022. As part of ongoing investigations, a crime scene examination was undertaken by specialist police at an address in Rose Bay yesterday. Following further inquiries, a 31-year-old man was arrested at a hotel on Sussex Street, Sydney, shortly before 1 am today (Sunday, November 6, 2022)”.