Malinga was given a “1 Year suspension, suspended by six months”

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

Sri Lanka seamer Lasith Malinga received a “1 Year suspension, suspended by six months” and will be fined 50 per cent of his match fee in his next ODI appearance after Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) found him guilty of breaching his contract.

A disciplinary inquiry had been launched against Malinga, who appeared before the SLC’s special inquiry panel on Tuesday.

Malinga accepted the charges against him and apologised for his actions. As a result, the board’s executive committee decided to impose a “1 Year suspension, suspended by six months (whereby the punishment would be imposed in the event of a similar infraction within the stipulated 6 month period) and a 50% fine of his next ODI match fee”.

The inquiry came into effect after Malinga lashed out at Sri Lanka’s sports minister, Dayasiri Jayasekara, after he criticised the national team’s fitness, saying that the players had “big bellies”. In addition to this, Malinga also compared Jayasekara to a monkey.

“I don’t care about criticism from those who are simply warming chairs,” Malinga had said. “What does a monkey know about a parrot’s nesting hollow?

“This is like a monkey getting into a parrot’s nest and talking about it.”

On Tuesday, SLC said that Malinga had twice acted in “contravention of the terms of agreement”, which forbids him from making statements to the media without prior consent from the board.

Both violations came after the Champions Trophy, with the first occurring on June 19 and the second on June 21.