The DG Saga — an eye opener to enforce strict disciplinary protocols
Danushka Gunathilaka hasn’t wasted time. Little over a year after his infamous night-out in Durham–when he and two others breached Britain’s strict COVID-19 protocols–he has grabbed global headlines again. This time, over charges of sexual intercourse without consent during the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup in Australia.
Danushka Gunathilaka -- accused or victim? Yet to be known, only time and trial will prove every fact
The details are now in the public domain and a legal process has kicked off to ascertain what unravelled between the cricketer and the ‘friend’ he found on Tinder, the dating app.
The public have been quick to pass judgment. Some keyboard warriors have defended the cricketer, never once questioning what his priorities should’ve been in the middle of a high profile tournament while vilifying the woman for “cooking up” a story. Others sympathise with the alleged victim and hang Gunathilaka out to dry, while opposing any move to support him. Still more are outraged and disappointed at the shocking revelations, although, given by the controversies Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and its players have been embroiled in, that shouldn’t be the case.
With riches he earned from being a cricketer, Gunathilaka has maintained a ‘playboy’ type lifestyle over the years and has been on the news for the wrong reason for more than once as he has shown little regard to discipline and work ethics. But SLC has been lenient on him for reasons best known, inviting international humiliation to the game and the country.
In all probability, this could be the end of the road for the 31-year-old talented but an unaccomplished cricketer whose short career is laden with controversies.
In 2017—two years after he made his international debut, Gunathilaka was suspended for six international matches and was fined on his annual contract fee for misconduct after he turned up for a match without his gear. His attitude towards training was on focus.
However, the suspension was later revised to three matches. Few months later in January 2018, he was reprimanded for breaching Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct during the final of the T20 Tri-Series against Bangladesh for giving Tamim Iqbal a send-off when the batsman was on his way to the dressing room.
In the same year, he was suspended for six international matches for ‘misconduct’ charge after a close associate of his was arrested for sexual assault in a team hotel in Colombo. Last year he and two others: Kusal Mendis and Niroshan Dickwella were initially banned for a year and a six months from international and domestic cricket respectively after they breached the bio-security bubble in Durham in addition to a fine of Rs. 10 million each. They were also asked to send for mandatory counselling. Following appeals from the trio, SLC reduced the ban to six months allowing them to resume cricket.
Despite repeated opportunities, Gunathilaka does not seem to have learnt his lessons and was on the fast lane to destruction with his off-field antics. Regardless of what comes out at the end of the legal process, the incident has exposed the ‘toxic’ culture that exists within Sri Lanka cricket.
They say that a fish rots from the head down. So it is with SLC: Allegations of sexual harassment involving coaches in the women’s team; proven cases of match-fixing involving some former cricketers; allegations of misappropriation of public funds by Cricket Board officials; frauds; drunk driving; and on and off-field misconduct of national cricketers. The authorities have done little to inject professionalism or maintain discipline over many years.
At a recent meeting between the Sports Minister and SLC officials, alongside National Sports Council (NSC) members, it was revealed that players attended 16 parties in Australia, just one of which was official. This begs the question: Does the team manager have any control over his charges?”
Even on the day of Gunathilaka’s incident, the manager reportedly extended curfew to 1.00a.m. which is an hour and 15 minutes over the usual deadline. Only twice he has done it during the tour and other being the night after Sri Lanka beat Afghanistan where the curfew had been extended till 2.00a.m.
There are other serious dangers in the sporting world that Gunathilaka and his keepers blatantly ignored, thereby placing the entire team at risk. In 2018, Lakshman de Silva, SLC’s former head of anti-corruption, raised the possibility that Gunathilaka might have been caught in a honey trap in relation to an infamous incident where he and a male friend allegedly took two Norwegian women to a Colombo hotel room. The friend was later accused of raping one of the women and Gunathilaka was slapped with a game’s ban.
When asked whether there would be any implications for Gunathilaka over the hotel room incident, de Silva said at the time, “Certainly, now it is bound to be a case study with the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit. The ICC Anti-Corruption Unit keeps monitoring who the players associate with and keep a very close tab on foreign nationals, especially women, whom they term as ‘honey traps’. Generally, the match-fixers use female decoys and lure them to do what the cricketers should not be doing.”
“The same player was involved in another incident in April 2017 with regard to match-fixing,” de Silva continued.
“But in that instance, he brought the matter up with the anti-corruption Unit.”
Gunathilaka’s recent encounter in Sydney may not have been a honey trap, but there are strict norms players are expected to follow, particularly when they are part of an official team participating in a major tournament. All possibilities, including honey traps and blackmail, have to be strictly guarded against.
SLC has now appointed a three-member inquiry panel to investigate the Sri Lanka team’s conduct during the tournament as other reports of misconduct have now surfaced. But it must not follow the practised route of merely being a measure to hoodwink the public. Gunathilaka may have dug his own grave, but he isn’t the first and wont’ be the last if SLC doesn’t get its act together.
| Another one, who didn’t bite the dust | |
 Karmer Nizamdeen In 2018, Karmer Nizamdeen, a Sri Lankan student, living in New South Wales was wrongly accused of a plot to kill then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. He was charged with creating a document in connection with preparing for a terrorist act, and spent four weeks behind bars before being released on bail. He was arrested on August 30, 2018 and was released on bail on September 28 before police dropped the case on October 19 after hand-writing experts found differences between the script in the notebook and Nizamdeen’s own writing. The investigations later found that the brother of Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja’s had falsified notes in the notebook to his University of New South Wales colleague after he was jealous of his contact with his mutual girlfriend Shakeela Shahid. Entries included death threats against then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the Governor General, as well as lists to attack police stations, an Anzac Day ceremony, the Boxing Day Test match and monuments including St. Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney. After admitting, he was jailed for four years and was only released in October this year. |
| No Extradition Treaty; Danushka may have to remain till case is heard | |
Is the absence of an Extradition Treaty between Sri Lanka and Australia standing in the way of cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka obtaining bail from charges of sexual assault on an Australian woman during the T20 World Cup. Lawyers appearing for Gunathilaka were horrified to learn that despite both countries being Commonwealth countries with Common Law practices, such a Treaty was non-existent.Gunathilaka surrendered his passport to the Police that came to arrest him in the early hours of last Sunday on the complaint by the Australian woman and was refused bail when arraigned before a Sydney Local Court as a "flight risk" on Monday. The 31-year-old cricketer will have to remain on remand wearing prison clothes until his next hearing in January. The four counts of sexual intercourse without consent and chocking the alleged victim against Gunathilaka comes in the backdrop of a recent amendment to Australian law on the interpretation of "consent". Following a campaign by the rape victims lobby, where the conviction rate on rape cases was below 20 per cent, the law was tightened to offer better protection to women. It brought in a provision to include 'body language' apart from a firm 'No' to sex. Both, the woman and Gunathilaka admit to consensual sex, but the woman's complaint is that after a while she indicated to him she was not a willing partner to continuing. The prosecution is relying on the latter part of the pair's sexual encounter and the new law now in force. The defence is likely to take up the position that when initially there was consent, whether the 'signals' given were sufficient for the accused to have refrained from continuing. In considering bail, the Court has to determine whether there is an unacceptable risk in releasing a Gunathilaka on bail as he may fail to appear at his trial. The existence of an Extradition Treaty would give the Court confidence that, even if Gunathilaka returns to Sri Lanka and refused to return to Australia, the Australian Government can make a request to the Sri Lankan Government under the Act to forcibly return him To Australia to face trial. This would a 'matter of fact' for the jury to apply the 'reasonable person' test to Gunathilaka. This would mean if how a normal person should have reacted to these 'signals' – or 'body language'. The law thus distinguishes that there can be consensual sex to begin with, but denied subsequently, i.e. consent only at a point. Gunathilaka, while admitting to having sex with the woman denies having used force. The Manager of the tour parry, Mahinda Halangoda admitted Sri Lanka Cricket provides no counselling to national teams that go on tour abroad on the local laws, especially on drinking and sex in the respective countries they visit. Any bad character evidence of Gunathilaka will not be admissible during a trial. The Australian woman's identity is suppressed by law. |
| Gunathilaka ‘shocked what happened and upset about his family’ | |
| SANS Law, a Sydney based legal firm, has been retained to fight the case against Danushka Gunathilaka after the player’s team withdrew lawyer Ananda Amaranath, who initially represented him in court. Amaranath was hired by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and the Sri Lanka High Commission.On a request made by Gunathilaka’s manager, Asanka Wijewardana, the case was transferred to a law firm. The cricketer was arrested early last Sunday at the team hotel. He is charged with four counts of sexual intercourse without consent.He was refused bail during a closed hearing on Monday at the Downing Centre Local Court. The case was adjourned till January 12. But his lawyers have now filed a release application with the Supreme Court which will be taken up on a date early next month. In the interim, his lawyers have re-agitated a Local Court release application on Wednesday by establishing a “change of circumstances”–they have offered a bail security to mitigate against the unacceptable risk of “failing to appear”. Gunathilaka has maintained his innocence over all of the charges and is ready to defend himself, his party said. “Given the early stages of the proceedings, we do not wish to make any further comment and will allow for the matter to be properly ventilated before the Court,” said his manager, Wijewardana. Asked how the player is handling the matter, he said he was “shocked at what happened and upset about his family”. Since being denied bail, Gunathilaka is being held at the Parklea Correctional Centre. A four-page police report released on Thursday and seen by the Sunday Times detailed the allegations against him. After meeting on Tinder, a popular dating app, Gunathilaka had gone on a date with the woman, who is not identified, in Sydney before they went to her home in Rose Bay. This is where she says the alleged rape occurred. According to the police report, the victim alleges that Gunathilaka refused to wear a condom and choked the woman three times. It also states that, although the cricketer’s statement “corroborated some of the alleged victim’s story, he had denied being violent or that consent had not been given”. Prosecutors allege the woman did not consent to sex without a condom or any of the other sexual acts. New South Wales this year introduced strict laws around sexual consent mandating that sexual partners must obtain consent by word or gestures before engaging in intercourse, and that sexual partners have a responsibility to clarify consent has been given. |