Picture Credit: Twitter/@OfficialSLC
In a major development, it is being learnt that three Sri Lanka players, namely Kusal Mendis, Niroshan Dickwella and Danushka Gunathilaka have been banned for 1 year by Sri Lanka Cricket following their bio-bubble breach in the UK. Notably, the trio were seen breaching the bio-bubble and spending time at a public place in Durham after Sri Lanka's 3-0 T20I series defeat against England. A video of them sharing a smoking substance in public had also gone viral. The three Sri Lankan cricketers have faced massive backlash from the fans since then.
Trio to miss the ICC T20 World Cup 2021
The trio had admitted that they had gone towards Durham’s City Centre, a place where they had been categorically asked to avoid. Following the incident, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) had decided to bring back the cricketers to Sri Lanka. Now, SLC has decided to ban the three cricketers for 1 year. As a result, they will also miss the T20 World Cup, scheduled to be held in UAE and Oman in October-November.
Mendis and Dickwella were even seen smoking in the streets of Durham. The trio were immediately sent on a 14-day quarantine and were also dropped from the ongoing ODI series against England. The hashtag #unfollowcricketers also began to trend on Facebook recently as thousands of fans decided to boycott the social media pages of Mendis and Gunathilaka.
"They are likely to get a minimum one-year suspension if found guilty of several breaches of their contract," one official had earlier told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.