Should Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) have lifted Danushka Gunathilaka’s ban?

By Shehan Daniel

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) announced on Tuesday that a three-member independent inquiry committee, headed by a Retired High Court Judge, had unanimously recommended an "immediate lifting" of the cricket ban imposed on Gunathilaka by SLC last year following allegations of sexual assault against the cricketer.

In a statement, SLC said the committee had carefully evaluated Gunathilaka's exoneration from those sexual assault changes, and had given "due consideration to his cricketing career and its impact on the cricketing ambitions of the nation", before recommending the lifting of the ban.

It effectively means that Gunathilaka can take part in any SLC-sanctioned tournament and can be considered for national selection.

But should he have been allowed to?

Gunathilaka has had, for the lack of a better phrase, a checkered disciplinary record, with the player having committed several indiscretions in the past while representing the country.

In 2021, Gunathilaka was one of three cricketers who were found to have breached the bio-safety bubble while the national team was on tour in Durham, England, for which all three were given a one-year suspension.

They were also handed an additional one-year ban suspended for two years, in the event that they breached the player code of conduct again -- a period during which, incidentally, the events in Australia last year fall under.

Within the first three years of making his international cricket debut in 2015, Gunathilaka was also suspended for nine matches over two separate incidents.

While he did miss almost a year of cricket due to his legal issues in Australia, the expectation was that Gunathilaka would be handed a harsh punishment by SLC, given the player’s past disciplinary record and the negative impact caused on Sri Lankan cricket by his actions – even if he was found not guilty of committing a crime.

But by allowing him to resume his cricket career, are SLC creating an image that discipline does not matter? Or should he be allowed to return to play cricket without further punishment.