Cricket: Tharanga handed three-month ban

Srli Lankan opener, Apul Tharanga, has been handed a three-month ban by the ICC after failing a drug test during the World Cup 2011 which means he will not be able to participate in any cricket-related activities. The ICC has accepted that Tharanga’s offence was not diliberate which entitltles the banned opener to be eligible for selection from August 9. Tharanga had provided a urine sample as part of the ICC’s random in-competition testing programme after the World Cup semi-final between New Zealand and Sri Lanka in Colombo on March 29. His sample was tested and found to contain Prednisone and Prednisolone, which are ‘Specified Substances’ under WADA’s prohibited list and are banned from being used in-competition “when administered by oral, intravenous intramuscular or rectal routes.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2011.