Chamika Karunaratne, who has been suspended from all forms of cricket due to disciplinary reasons, has been punished on two charges, according to cricket officials.
The two charges against the cricketer are said to be an exchange of words with nine other team members in a restaurant adjacent to a casino in a hotel building and lighting a lamp to venerate Buddha in his hotel room.
According to a complaint made by the hotel management, lighting the lamp in the hotel room is a violation of the hotel’s security directives, and the cricketer has been subjected to a fine of 1000 dollars through the manager of the team in Australia itself.
However, he has been punished again after being punished for lighting a lamp, and he was also accused of the exchange of words inside the restaurant.
Chamika has been informed to appear before a disciplinary committee an hour before the committee meeting on the 24th.
It is reported that he was asked whether there was a fight in the casino and whether a lamp was lit in his hotel room.
Chamika has explained that he and nine other players did not go to the casino but to a hotel restaurant where a casino is run. He went there with the intention of having dinner, and there was no conflict at the time, only a verbal exchange with a group of people in the restaurant.
Admitting that he lit a lamp in the hotel room before the match, Chamika pointed out that he had been fined one thousand dollars by the management.
However, Sri Lanka Cricket’s internal sources reveal that the purpose of this disciplinary investigation, which was conducted without recording statements from any of the other players who were with him, is to justify the reason for his removal from the upcoming tour of Afghanistan.
During a press conference held by Sri Lanka Cricket, when the media asked if the reason for removing Chamika Karunaratne from the ODI squad was a disciplinary matter, Sri Lanka Cricket Secretary Mohan de Silva replied that it was not a disciplinary reason but a decision based on the player’s talent.
However, the cricket experts point out that the skills shown in the last ODI match are considered prominently in the selection and that the skills shown in the last ODI series are more important than the performance shown in the T20 matches in the selection for an ODI match. It is pointed out that Chamika Karunaratne was the man of the match when he scored 75 runs in the last ODI.
According to reports, the hidden reason behind this punishment is that this player has ideologically opposed a certain religious group that is becoming powerful within the team.
