SLC forms five-member panel to probe bubble-breach in England
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Three Sri Lankan players, Niroshan Dickwella, Danushka Gunathilaka, and Kusal Mendis have broke the team's biosecure bubble in Durham on June 27. SLC has appointed a five-member panel to investigate the matter. The trio flew back home early from the tour of England and has been suspended pending an inquiry into the incident.
Justice Nimal Dissanayaka, a retired judge of the Sri Lankan Supreme Court, three attorneys-at-law in Panduka Keerthinanda, Asela Rekawa, and Uchitha Wickremasinghe, and retired major general MRW De Zoysa make up the five-member panel.
When a video of Dickwella and Mendis out in public surfaced on social media, SLC's medical team is believed to have learned about the bubble breach. Gunathilaka was not in the video, but the other two are believed to have stepped out.
According to SLC officials, all three admitted to visiting Durham's City Centre, which the tour's Covid-19 protocols had forbidden them from doing.
The bubble breach probe comes at a difficult moment for Sri Lankan cricket, both on and off the field, with a stalemate between the players and the board having just ended with the signing of contracts for the upcoming white-ball series against India.
However, Angelo Mathews, the team's senior batter, has declined to sign a contract and is rumored to be mulling retirement. A change in leadership appears to be on the cards, with Kusal Perera - who is thought to have played a key role in the contract standoff - perhaps losing his white-ball captaincy to Dasun Shanaka.
