Cricket: Mendis, Gunathilaka, Dickwella banned with fines

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has found national cricketers Kusal Mendis, Danushka Gunathilaka and Niroshan Dickwella guilty for breaching the bio security bubble during Sri Lanka's white-ball series in England and have handed them with bans and fines, according to informed sources.

A five-member disciplinary panel has made the recommendation to the Executive Committee of SLC, who has to retify the decision at its meeting to follow soon.

All three cricketers will be banned from all forms of cricket during the period imposed and have been asked by SLC to pay a fine of US$ 25,000 each, for their conduct.

Accordingly Mendis and Gunathilaka have been slapped with bans of two years each while Dickwella has received a 18-month ban. 

On June 27, SLC imposed immediate and temporary suspensions and recalled Mendis, Gunathilaka and Dickwella for the serious offence of breaching the bio-secure bubble.

The disciplinary action was made last month after a video went viral on social media of them out at night in Durham, England, breaching strict COVID-19 protocols, where players were barred from exiting their hotel but for their morning walk or run. 

The video shows the three cricketers roaming the city with scant regard to regulations.

Mendis, the then vice captain of the team, was also involved in a hit-and-run accident which resulted in the death of a cyclist but escaped punishment from police and SLC. 

Gunathilaka has had several incidents of misconduct and was previously suspended for breaching the player code of conduct.

The verdict was made by an independent five-member disciplinary panel appointed by SLC, mostly consisting legal experts. 

The five-member panel includes Justice Nimal Dissanayaka (Retd Judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka), Panduka Keerthinanda (Attorney-at-Law), Asela Rekawa (Attorney-at-Law), Uchitha Wickremasinghe (Attorney-at-Law) and Major General (Retd) M.R.W. de Zoysa.