Rex Clementine
in Sydney
After their hard fought loss to England in Sydney on Saturday night, Sri Lanka’s cricketers left for the team hotel to pack their bags and head off to the airport for an early morning flight. They were supposed to leave the team hotel at 3:30 am and to everyone’s surprise, Police were in the hotel. They were there to snap Danushka Gunathilaka away. The opening batsman had been arrested and was charged on four counts of sexual assault. He was denied immediate bail, which meant that the Sri Lankan team had to leave Sydney without him. He will be produced in courts today at 12:30 Sydney time.
Danushka Gunathilaka had been a serial offender. Every time he got into trouble, there was someone to bail him out. He had many godfathers in cricket. An immensely gifted player, his misconducts were always swept under the carpet. As a result, now a nation has been shamed. Danushka first got into trouble in October 2017 during the bilateral series against India in Pallekele. Having missed training one day, he turned up at the dressing room next day without his kit bag and was smelling alcohol. One the recommendations of team manager Asanka Gurusinha, he was suspended for six games.
The same year when Sri Lanka had to tour Pakistan not too many players were keen to go. The board reduced his ban and brought him back. So Danushka returned but Gura went back home.
Six months later, a police investigation was on during a Test match against South Africa after a Norwegian tourist complained of sexual assault. Police investigation was dropped against Gunathilaka after it emerged that a friend of his was the culprit of the sexual assault. SLC suspended him for six matches for breaching curfew.
As Danushka was serving a suspended sentence when the curfew breach happened, a harsher punishment was expected. But it was felt that the team management at that time wanted to make sure that he was ready for the back to back away tours of New Zealand and Australia. The suspension was given in such a manner that he will be available for selection for the two tours.
Then, last year he was sent home from England along with Kusal Mendis and Niroshan Dickwella for breaching bio-secure bubble in Durham. On their return home, they faced an inquiry. The panel that conducted the inquiry recommended two year bans. But SLC only handed them one year bans. Furthermore, even before six months had elapsed the bans were lifted allowing the players to return to international cricket.
This was after the panel that conducted the inquiry observed lack of remorse from Danushka’s part while taking part in inquiry. Danushka had been also advised to go for medical counseling by Processor Arjuna de Silva, head of SLC medical team.
During Sri Lanka’s disappointing World Cup campaign in Australia, they had six players injured. While the team didn’t waste any time in sending the injured players back home, they treated Danushka with kids’ gloves by having him on tour. You can understand a team retaining an Aravinda de Silva or a Mahela Jayawardene with the hope they will come in handy towards the business end of a campaign. But to think the same of Danushka Gunathilaka is not sound argument.
Danushka’s last half-century was in May 2021, that was 21 innings ago. The kindhearted gestures that Danushka has been given are hard to comprehend. The only explanation is his SSC connections. It doesn’t help that the captain Dasnun Shanaka, Chairman of Selectors Pramodaya Wickremesinghe, Manager Mahinda Halangoda and the Consultant Coach Mahela Jayawardene are all from SSC. So is Danushka. They seem to have mixed up SSC and SLC these days.
This episode is a shame for the entire nation. If you spend enough time following Danushka during training, you will realize that his focus is elsewhere. But when misfits are selectors on tour, they fail to detect these things. Let’s say the selector on tour was a misfit, it is tough to imagine how a smart guy like Mahela didn’t figure that out.