When it was announced on Monday, March 18, that Wanindu Hasaranga had performed a U-turn and was picked for the Sri Lanka squad for the Test series against Bangladesh, there were a lot of fans who were left surprised.
Hasaranga had retired from the longest format of the game in August last year as he was looking to prolong his career in the white-ball format. When the decision was made on Monday, the Sri Lankan cricket fans were happy as they had a strong side to face Bangladesh.
However, the happiness was short-lived as Hasaranga was banned by the ICC on Tuesday, March 19. During the third ODI in the recently-concluded series against Bangladesh, the all-rounder was found guilty of breaching article 2.8 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to “showing dissent at an Umpire’s decision during an International Match.”
The incident occurred in the 37th over of the game when Hasaranga snatched his cap from one of the umpires and ridiculed the officiating in the match. In a matter of 24 hours, Hasaranga would reverse his Test retirement and also get a ban from playing in the matches against Bangladesh.
However, some of the fans, especially the ones of Sunrisers Hyderabad and Sri Lanka cricket, would have a sly smile on their faces as Hasaranga seems to have exploited a loophole in the ICC rules to make himself available for the IPL and the T20 World Cup.
Still a bit confused? Well, let’s try to decode the ban at first.
What was the punishment for Hasaranga’s latest ban?
So, Hasaranga received a 50 per cent fine and accumulated three demerit points for his offence. This brought his total demerit points to eight in 24 months.
Hasaranga was already on 5 demerit points after getting three during the series against Afghanistan, were he had some strong words for the umpires. He was subsequently banned for two T20Is as well. The latest collection of three more demerit points, which, pursuant to article 7.6 of the Code, has been converted into four suspension points.
This means that Hasaranga would either miss 2 Tests or 4 ODIs or 4 T20Is, whatever comes first. Had the all-rounder not come out of Test retirement, it would have led to him missing the first 4 matches of Sri Lanka’s T20I World Cup campaign and that would have been a big blow for the side.
So this is the first major win for Hasaranga. But wait, there’s more. Had the ban not been there, Hasaranga wouldn’t have played the first few games for his new IPL franchise, SRH. So now, with the ban in place, it means that all-rounder will be available for the entire IPL 2024 campaign.
As Tabraiz Shamsi would point out in his tweet soon after the ban, it was certainly a game that was executed to perfection by everyone involved. Sri Lanka really didn’t need Hasaranga for the matches against Bangladesh, but the T20 World Cup was where they really needed the all-rounder.
Hasaranga would have also wanted to be there in the IPL 2024 right from the beginning as he would want to be ready for the ICC event in the USA and the Caribbean.
So, the loophole was perfectly exploited and it does make ICC look a bit foolish in the end. While this small game from Hasaranga wa great, hopefully this doesn’t set a precedent for a new trend amongst the players.
