Sri Lanka Cricket have suspended Danushka Gunathilaka after he was charged with raping a woman in Sydney.
Gunathilaka, 31, has been charged with four counts of sexual intercourse without consent while at the T20 World Cup in Australia.
He was denied bail on Sunday and again on Monday by a court in Sydney.
Sri Lanka Cricket said Gunathilaka, who was arrested around 1 a.m. local time on Sunday, had been suspended “from all cricket with immediate effect”.
It added: “Sri Lanka Cricket will take the necessary steps to promptly carry out an inquiry into the alleged offence, and, upon conclusion of the court case in Australia, steps will be taken to penalise the said player if found guilty.
“Sri Lanka Cricket wishes to emphasise that it adopts a ‘zero tolerance’ policy for any such conduct by a player and will provide all the required support to the Australian law enforcement authorities to carry out an impartial inquiry into the incident.”
It is alleged he sexually assaulted a 29-year-old woman on November 2.
The arrest came hours after Sri Lanka’s final game of the World Cup – a four-wicket defeat by England on Saturday.
Gunathilaka played in the first game, against Namibia, but was ruled out of the rest of tournament with injury on October 20. He had remained with the squad in Australia.
New South Wales police say he met with the woman after communicating for a number of days on a dating app. (BBC)
