Sri Lankan sports ministry has designed a panel to probe Upul Tharanga’s doping issue
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758’s sports minister, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, on Monday, has decided to question Upul Tharanga regarding his failed dope Test, which was indicated by International Cricket Council (ICC).
To probe the matter, the sports minister has announced a three-member panel which will take the player’s statement to start the proceedings.
The panel includes two doctors with vast experience and knowledge related to sports medicine. Sri Lankan sports ministry secretary, Udaya Seneviratne, will lead the case.
Tharanga is the first Sri Lankan player, who failed a dope Test for a banned substance, prednisolone. This was revealed by an accidental check up during the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup 2011.
The drug is said to be used as a cure for asthma, the problem the player is facing these days.
SLC sports ministry’s spokesperson, Harsha Abeykoon, told the media that they have still not been officially informed by the ICC about this matter.
ICC anti-doping rules bound every player to make sure that no banned substance is taken into his/her body.
The players are held responsible if any prohibited substance is seen in their body regardless of the fact that he takes it unintentionally or by mistake.
However, if any player is prescribed a banned substance by World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) to take as a medicine for a cure, then he/she needs to apply for a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE), which will carry out further proceedings on all the applications
for TUEs with consultation of ICC.
Tharanga’s blood sample was taken in Colombo during the mega event, while cricket officials revealed that no such incident had happened before in Sri Lankan cricket.
Although Tharanga has not given any comments on the issue, he had already consulted a lawyer to face the ICC inquiry.
"There's nothing I can say at this stage", ICC spokesman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/James-Fitzgerald-c65673 said.
Although Tharanga hit a splendid unbeaten century against England during the World Cup semi-final, he is not included in the Sri Lankan squad for their ongoing series against England.
The 26 year-old has represented Sri Lanka in 26 Tests and 116 ODI innings, scoring 713 and 3898 runs respectively.
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