Sangakkara wants Kusal added to SL squad

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Cricket365
May 24, 2016

Batting great Kumar Sangakkara wants Kusal Perera added to the Sri Lanka squad that is currently in England after the International Cricket Council (ICC) cleared the latter of doping charges.

Kusal had been suspended by the ICC in December last year after failing a drugs test and HE has not been allowed to play any competitive cricket since but was cleared has been cleared to play after the governing body said they made a mistake.

The left-hander, who was a regular in Sri Lanka squads before the ban, has missed a tour to New Zealand, a T20 series in India, the Asia Cup and the World T20 in India and Sangakkara said he deserves to be in the UK.

Sri Lanka are in England preparing for three Tests, five ODIs and a one-off T20I against the hosts.

Sangakkara, who is currently in England playing county cricket, said: "Before this tour he'd have been at the T20 World Cup, opening with [Tillakaratne] Dilshan which would have been a huge advantage for us because he's a fantastic player.

"I'm extremely confused as to what has happened, the labs in Qatar came back with an adverse finding in one of his urine samples and named the steroid that was found, then over the last few days they have withdrawn that, saying there's been a mistake.

"The poor boy has been out for quite a long time. [He's] 24-25, one of the most exciting talents we have, a wicketkeeper, a strong batsman.

"I hope they do [fly him out for the England tour] because when you've got through something like that the best support is to be allowed to play cricket again.

"He's good enough to be here. But the sad fact is that when you are provisionally banned, you can't even train, using the facilities that international teams use.

"A sad situation but thankfully that's all over, he can carry on what he loves doing, but unfortunately Sri Lanka has lost a remarkable player for quite some time now."