Sri Lankan Cricket bans Bhanuka Rajapaksa

29-year-old Bhanuka Rajapaksa, who is one of the more talented Sri Lankan batters at present has been slapped with a year-long ban and is essentially on probation for two years.

The dashing southpaw has more than 4000 first-class runs at an average of 36.50 runs per inning. And that’s not it; the big-hitting Rajapaksa has also played a couple of quick-fire cameos while representing Shane Watson’s Deccan Gladiators in the T10 league in the past.

• Why is Bhanuka Rajapaksa banned?

Having been overlooked by Sri Lankan Cricket Board for more than two years; Bhanuka has often displayed his strong discontentment at the same. This immature behavior of his apparently breaches the contract and has not gone down too well with the SLC.

Here’s what SLC’s official statement says-

“National player Bhanuka Rajapaksa has been handed a one-year ban from all forms of cricket, which is suspended for two years and fined USD 5,000 after an inquiry found that the player has breached the obligations of Player Contract 2019/2020 while appearing in Social and other Media Interviews.”

What’s next

While he’s been banned from all forms of cricket for essentially two full years; his efforts have finally been rewarded- he has now been picked in the 13-man Sri Lankan Squad for the series against Virat Kohli’s mighty men. This aforementioned squad is currently training under a bio-secure bubble in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

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It is to be noted that Bhanuka’s improved fitness has just earned him a place in the “training squad” and not the playing squad. There is practically zero probability of the Sri Lankan Cricket Board lifting his ban prematurely. This basically means that the 29-year-old batter has to face two more years in the wilderness- and this time, he’s the only one to blame.