Sri Lanka Cricket suspends Danushka Gunathilaka from all frormats following his arrest with rape charges

The Executive Committee of the Sri Lankan Cricket Board have decided to suspend the national cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka from all forms of the game.

Gunathilaka was arrested in Australia after being accused of sexual assault on a woman. He will not be considered for any kind of team selection.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) through a press release have cleared that ' The Board 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'

According to the media reports, Sri Lanka Cricket enlightened the arrest news of Danushka Gunathilaka with rape charges after the finish of the Sri Lanka vs England match on November 5.

The Lankan team after being crashed out of the ongoing T20 World Cup and have returned to the nation excluding Danushka. He was included in the World Cup squad but was ruled out of the tournament due to injury. Ashen Bandara replaced him in the Sri Lankan squad but the player was part of the contingent. 

A 29-year woman accused Gunathilaka with rape charges at her home. According to the media reports, the woman told the police that she met the cricketer on an online dating website and both even chat for a few times. The meeting was fixed between the two during which Gunathilaka sexually assaulted her. 

The 31-year-old cricketer is not the one with the clear image as he had been accused of such things in the past as well. He was charged by a Norwegian woman with similar misbehavior in 2018 and hence was suspended by Sri Lanka Cricket back then also.

Gunathilaka has played 8 Test Matches, 47 ODIs, and 46 T2OIs and has scored 299, 1601 and 741 career runs respectively for Sri Lanka.