Days after Sri Lanka Cricket(SLC) board’s president Thilanga Sumathipala said that SLC would ask the International Cricket Council(ICC) to reimburse the costs incurred by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to help Kusal Perera overturn a provincial suspension from the sport after Perera was tested positive for a banned substance, Norandrostenedione, ICC has denied receiving any request for compensation from SLC, and also confirmed that it had not agreed to compensate the board.
A few days ago SLC President Thilanga Sumathipala said that the board had spent close to 13 million rupees (USD 92,000) on the lawsuit. SLC had expended money on various tests, including polygraph and urine tests.
Hours before the ICC’s denial, SLC secretary Mohan de Silva claimed the ICC had said verbally that it would compensate the board.
“The ICC has agreed to compensate us, but there is nothing in writing. In any case, we will be making an appeal for that. I’m quite confident that they will oblige us,” Mohan de Silva said.
On their part, ICC confirmed that they had not received any request from Sri Lanka Cricket to compensate for the case.
“The ICC can confirm that it has not received any request for compensation from SLC or Mr. Perera and it has not agreed (verbally or otherwise) to any such reimbursement,” the ICC said.
“Whilst the circumstances of this case are unfortunate, the ICC does not accept that it is responsible for the finding of the WADA-accredited Qatar Laboratory or the consequences that flowed from such a finding, and the ICC will be considering its own position in respect of who should bear the costs incurred by the ICC in its additional efforts and investigation that ultimately resulted in the Laboratory agreeing to withdraw the original finding.”
The suspension led to a huge loss for Perera on a playing front as he missed a full series against New Zealand, a bilateral series against India, and two major tournaments in the Asia Cup and World T20, Perera was also ineligible for the IPL auction. He had been a fixture in all three formats for Sri Lanka prior to the suspension.