In what comes as an embarrassing development for Sri Lankan cricket and its fans, the senior national team's batter Danushka Gunathilaka was reportedly arrested in Sydney on November 05 (Saturday) after being accused of rape charges by a woman. The 31-year-old Gunathilaka was with the Sri Lankan team when they played England in Sydney but was not part of the playing XI as a hamstring injury had earlier drawn curtains to his 2022 World Cup campaign. Despite being replaced by Ashen Bandara, Gunathilaka remained with the team in Australia.
The left-handed batter's arrest reportedly took place after Sri Lanka's defeat against England on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan team left for Colombo early on November 06 (Sunday) without Gunathilaka.
The 31-year-old was involved in a similar incident in 2018 when Sri Lankan police probed him and his friend for the alleged rape of a Norwegian woman in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka Cricket board then suspended the batter. However, the police dismissed the charges against the Sri Lankan batter later.
The left-handed batter has played eight Test matches, 47 ODIs and 46 T20Is for the Islanders, scoring over 2,500 runs in international cricket.
(More to follow)
