Sri Lanka Cricket suspends Danushka Gunathilaka for six matches for breaching code of conduct

Colombo, July 27: Sri Lanka All-rounder Danushka Gunathilaka has been suspended for six matches by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) after breaching its code of conduct.

It is reported Gunathilaka broke curfew during the second Test against South Africa in Colombo, which Sri Lanka won to clinch the series.

SLC banned the player for three matches, with an additional three-game ban coming courtesy of a suspended sentence from October 2017.

Gunathilaka will also not receive his match fee for the Proteas Test.Earlier on July 23, Gunathilaka was suspended from all forms of international cricket by SLC pending an inquiry. The development came at the end of the third day's play in the second and final Test between Sri Lanka and South Africa in Colombo.

Later in the day, an official informed that a Norwegian woman, a friend of the cricketer, accused him of raping her in a hotel room where he was present.

As per AFP report, Gunathilaka, 27, and his friend, who cannot be named, took two Norwegian women to the hotel where the player was staying in Colombo in the early hours of Sunday.

One of the women later accused the second man, a British passport-holder of Sri Lankan origin, of raping her and police arrested him.

The 26-year-old "is under arrest and we are continuing our investigations," a police official told reports.

"A Norwegian tourist made the complaint of rape."

Gunathilaka has been no stranger to controversy. In January he was officially reprimanded for breaching Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct during the Twenty20 International tri-series against Bangladesh when he gave Tamim Iqbal a send-off, which earned him one demerit point.

In 2017, after displaying a poor attitude towards training when Sri Lanka hosted India, the batsman was suspended for six white-ball matches for misconduct - later revised to three with three matches being part of a suspended sentence - and was subsequently omitted from the one-day international squad to face Pakistan.

(With inputs from agencies)