The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is set to pay Sri Lankan cricketer Kusal Perera $500,000 in compensation after he was wrongfully banned for a doping violation, Sri Lanka's The Island newspaper reports, citing the head of the country's cricket federation Thilanga Sumathipala
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th March, 2020) The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is set to pay Sri Lankan cricketer Kusal Perera $500,000 in compensation after he was wrongfully banned for a doping violation, Sri Lanka's The Island newspaper reports, citing the head of the country's cricket federation Thilanga Sumathipala.
According to the newspaper, Perera was suspended by cricket's governing body, the International Cricket Council, in December 2015 after a Qatar-based laboratory found a banned substance in his urine. This was later found to be a false positive, and the charges were dropped after the sample was tested again in Paris in May 2016.
Negotiations between WADA and Perera's legal team are in the final stages, the newspaper reported, but the compensation figure will reflect both the personal damages incurred by the player, as well as the costs to Sri Lanka's national cricket board.
Perera has played in a total of 18 test matches and 101 one-day internationals for Sri Lanka since making his national team debut in 2013.
In July, French footballer Mamadou Sakho launched a $17 million lawsuit against WADA for a drugs test error that saw the then-Liverpool defender banned for 30 days in 2016 for testing positive for a fat-burning substance. Sakho was later cleared by UEFA's disciplinary board, which found that the substance was in fact not banned by WADA.
