WADA & ICC has unanimously agreed to pay the left-hander 35 million rupees for all the costs Kusal Janith Perera incurred during the course of time he was forced to spend out of international cricket, Sri Lanka Cricket confirmed today at a press briefing.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and International Cricket Council had earlier admitted that they made a blunder in suspending Sri Lanka wicket-keeper batsman Kusal Janith Perera over alleged doping charges.
This will be the first time in history that WADA will compensate an athlete over a matter similar to this. ICC and WADA have also decided not to use the Qatar-based testing facility in the future.
“Sri Lanka Cricket incurred costs around 13 million rupees while the full amount is about 35 million rupees including lawyers’ fees, doctors’ fees and lab tests reports. WADA will pay it in the first-round through the ICC but that is not enough. For all the damage to Kusal’s reputation and good name, we will demand more. I will discuss this matter after Kusal arrives from England” Sri Lanka Cricket President, Thilanga Sumathipala said.
Perera was provisionally suspended in December 2015 when the Qatar-based WADA testing facility found 19-Norandrostenedione, a banned substance in a sample obtained from Perera in October the same year.
Perera’s legal team challenged the finding, arguing that “the Qatar laboratory might have misidentified impurities in the samples as 19-Norandrostenedione, given the very low concentrations of that substance found in the samples.”
In response, the ICC said it hired an independent expert to review all of the Qatar laboratory’s findings. Though the expert concluded the lab had correctly identified the substance in the samples, the expert’s view was that the lab’s finding was not sustainable.
This was because, “for various scientific and technical reasons, it could not be ruled out that the 19-Norandrostenedione was produced naturally in the player’s body and/or formed in the samples after the player provided them.”
ICC lifted the ban on 11th May, 2016 giving Kusal the opportunity to return to international cricket.
