Mendis under the radar after Bloomfield complaint

by Rex Clementine

Within days after being handed the captaincy of the ODI team, Kusal Mendis has got under the radar following an incident at Reid Avenue during a domestic one-day game involving Bloomfield and SSC.

Mendis was dismissed for a second ball duck and on his way back to the pavilion, he is alleged to have smashed the dressing room door. Following that incident, he had got involved in an altercation with the Manager of Bloomfield scolding him in filth for the poor wicket prepared for the game.

Bloomfield had brought the incident to the attention of match officials but none of them had seen the incident, and no CCTV footage of the incident were available either.

The matter has been referred to Sri Lanka Cricket and it remains to be seen what action the board will take. Some observers say that with no evidence available, it will be hard for the board to take action; one man’s word against the other. Anyway, in recent times, the board has let players off with mere slap on the wrists.

However, on the contrary, there is some pressure for the board to take action against the player as Mendis has been a serial offender.

There is a push for the player to be handed one game suspension from international cricket just to drive home a point that a captain of a nation cannot behave like a thug.

Mendis captained Sri Lanka during the World Cup filling in for the injured Dasun Shanaka. But a mere couple of days after being given the captaincy on a full-time basis, to bring the game into disrepute wouldn’t have been what the selectors would have expected.

Mendis was one of the players sent home from UK for breaching the bio-secure bubble in 2021. Although the independent judge who conducted the inquiry recommended a two-year ban, SLC reduced it to one year and further cut it down by six months enabling him to resume international cricket a few months after the incident.

Mendis has a history of discipline issues, and his progress as a top-notch batsman has been hindered due to these off the field distractions.

SSC also has promised to look at the matter seriously. Mendis although has been named Sri Lanka’s ODI captain, the club is captained by Charith Asalanka, a more sensible man.

Zimbabwe will arrive in Colombo later this week for a three match ODI and T-20 series.