Dickwella anti-doping ban cut to three months
Sri Lanka keeper-batter Niroshan Dickwella who was banned for three years following an anti-doping violation, has had his ban reduced to three months, allowing him to resume playing cricket across all formats with immediate effect, Sri Lanka Cricket has announced.
The 31-year-old was handed a three -year suspension after testing positive for a prohibited substance, a Substance of Abuse, following a random anti-doping test conducted on the player.
The ban was imposed in August 2024 by the Sri Lanka Anti-Doping Agency (SLADA).
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However, Dickwella appealed the ban and submitted relevant evidence through which he sought to demonstrate that his ingestion of the prohibited substance took place out-of-competition and was “unrelated to "enhancing sports performance", meaning that the appropriate sanction would be a three-month period of ineligibility.
Following a successful appeal, SLADA accepted Dickewella’s submissions and, in accordance with the provisions of the relevant Anti-Doping Code, reduced Dickwella's ban to three months, a period which ended in November, allowing him to resume playing cricket immediately.
The keeper last played international cricket in March 2023; he was part of the Sri Lanka XI in the first Test against New Zealand in Christchurch. He was dropped after the opening Test, having scored just 7 runs in the match.
Dickwella was called up to T20I squad in March 2024 for Bangladesh T20Is but did not get to play a game.