SSC lifts ban on Danushka Gunathilaka and Nuwan Zoysa

• Gunathilaka can play in ongoing SLC Major Club Limited Over tournament

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka will be free to play domestic cricket for SSC after the club’s Cricket House Committee and Executive Committee decided to lift the ban imposed on him due to his misconduct on a tour of Australia for the ICC T20 World Cup in 2022.

Similarly, the SSC also lifted the ban it imposed on former Sri Lanka fast bowler Nuwan Zoysa, who was banned by the ICC in April 2021 from all cricket for breaching three offences in the ICC anti-corruption code. The ICC had recently lifted the six-year ban on Zoysa, who is a member of the SSC and was attached to the National Fast Bowling Coaching Department of Sri Lanka Cricket.

With the ban being lifted with immediate effect Gunathilaka will be available to make his comeback to competitive cricket by representing SSC in the ongoing SLC Major Club Limited Over tournament, provided he is selected.

SSC Head Coach Saman Jayantha said that Gunathilaka was in the squad for SSC’s next game against Nugegoda SWC at Moratuwa today and added, “According to the wicket, we are trying to get him to play tomorrow.”  Jayantha said that ever since SLC lifted the ban, Gunathilaka has been practicing individually and only attended practices at SSC from yesterday.

“He will make a good impact in the team because he has got a lot of experience. He is concentrating only on white ball cricket. He is in good touch. He will get a chance to play because a few of our players will be involved in the upcoming series with Zimbabwe and there are going to be a few vacant spots to fill.”

With Sri Lanka struggling to find a suitable opening partner for Pathum Nissanka in white ball cricket, Gunathilaka could easily press for a claim to that spot if he can regain the form that saw him represent the country in 93 white ball matches. 

The 32-year-old left-handed opener last played in a competitive match on 16 October, 2022 for Sri Lanka against Namibia at Geelong before he was arrested on charges of sexual assault without consent and was forced to remain in Sydney, Australia till his case was over on 28 September, 2023 when the Judge found him not guilty of sexual assault.

Gunathilaka was suspended from all forms of cricket in November 2022 by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) while the legal process was ongoing. But following the court verdict SLC on the recommendation of its independent inquiry committee lifted the ban on Gunathilaka with immediate effect on 17 October, 2023 ‘allowing him to resume regular activities and return to national duty’.

In January 2022 Gunathilaka quit Test cricket to concentrate on white ball cricket. He represented his country in 8 Tests scoring 299 runs and two fifties, but his white ball career has been more productive. In 47 ODIs he has scored 1601 runs at an average of 35.57 with 2 centuries, while in T20Is he has 741 runs in 46 matches at a strike rate of 120.48.

Those numbers could have been better had it not been for Gunathilaka’s frequent brush with authority over disciplinary issues. Since his international debut in 2015 Gunathilaka had served three separate suspensions, the last of which before the incident in Australia, came in June 2021 when along with Kusal Mendis and Niroshan Dickwella while on tour in England he breached bio-bubble protocols and earned a one-year ban, though it was lifted after six months. On an earlier occasion he was suspended for breaking team curfew and showing an indifferent attitude to training. 

The fact that Gunathilaka remained in the national frame despite these breaches speaks of his potential.

SSC’s Cricket House Committee Chairman and an Executive Committee member of the club Samantha Dodanwela said that, while lifting the ban Gunathilaka has been told that if there is any misconduct on his part in the future, he would be expelled from the club.

“The SSC maintains high standards of discipline and there are certain protocols to follow,” said Dodanwela. “We have to go through the correct process. We have the Disciplinary Committee, the Executive Committee and the Cricket House Committee. After receiving the recommendations of the Disciplinary Committee, the ExCo decided to lift the ban and as a result the Cricket House Committee decided to allow him to play cricket.” 

When SLC lifted the ban in October Gunathilaka could easily have gone and played for another club because the ban imposed by SSC was still effective. But to his credit it must be said that he decided to stick with SSC and pursue his white ball career. 

SSC has also suspended another of its members, former Sri Lankan cricketer Sachitra Senanayake who was arrested by the police in September this year on charges related to match fixing.