Sri Lanka all-rounder Chamika Karunaratne could face a fresh inquiry, this time from the Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe, after a letter written about the player’s behaviour while on tour with the national team at the T20 World Cup in Australia last month, was leaked publicly.
Karunaratne was handed a suspended one-year ban by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and a fine of US dollars 5000 after SLC carried out an inquiry of its own, but his omission from the Afghanistan series led to the Sports Minister calling for an explanation as to why Karunaratne was dropped.
The letter, written by Chief Selector Pramodya Wickramasinghe, outlines the reasons behind the player’s omission for the series against Afghanistan, which concluded on Wednesday, while stating that Karunaratne had been at the centre of several indiscretions.
“At the conclusion of the Australian WC tour I had a meeting with the National Coach pertaining to tour selections for the Afghanistan inbound tour of Sri Lanka. While names were being discussed, Chamika's name was discussed in detail, the outcome of the meeting on Chamika's selection was to leave him out from this tour as the National Coach has lost trust in him as Chamika has been exposed in not being truthful to the coach on multiple occasions. It was the opinion of the Coach that Chamika was not focused on his game,” Wickramasinghe wrote.
“Even during the T20 World Cup in Australia I observed Chamika very closely, It was my observation that wherever we travelled internally, he was more focused on meeting ladies of Sri Lankan origin who were domiciled in Australia. Further, I would like to place on record that he has missed some training sessions on tour mentioning that he was feeling unwell, however I have reason to believe that he had accommodated female companions at the hotel. (I would propose that a request is made to the hotel to provide CCTV footage on the said dates he did not attend training sessions).”
"It was revealed that his focus was not in Cricket and this may have been one of the main reasons that he couldn't perform upto expectations of the team Management. I had a conference call with my fellow selectors mentioning the above incidents which had taken place and we decided that ideally we would drop him from the Afghanistan tour in making sure that he focuses and realigns himself taking his Cricket seriously", the chief selector also wrote in his letter.
"I was also told by the team Manager that during our stay in Sydney, a Sri Lankan Gentleman had called and wanted to meet with Chamika, mentioning that he had a problem to solve with Chamika. Thereafter the Manager refused to accommodate his request unless there was a meaningful reason to meet him, at that point the Gentleman had mentioned that Chamika had been calling his wife and bothering her with indecent proposals and being a nuisance. Contacting this Gentleman via the Team Manager, you may be able to find out more depth about the activities of Chamika, which he had mentioned that he had evidence of some grave malpractices involving Chamika,” the selector has said in a letter, which was seen by this reporter.
The chief selector also suggested the player to undergo psychological counselling before being considered for international cricket again.
The letter was addressed to the Secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) Mohan de Silva.
"Understandably, the player is known to have known the so-called Sri Lankan gentleman and his wife but it is astonishing for a player of the national team to harass the woman, a well placed source at SLC said. “I will not be surprised if a fresh investigation is ordered.”
(Bipin Dani)
