Kandy Sports Club claims that drug cheat Thilina Wijesinghe had taken a banned substance as a player training with the Sri Lanka rugby squad in August 2019 and not while wearing the club’s jersey.
Wijesinghe was banned by the Sri Lanka Anti Doping Agency (SLADA) for four years after being found guilty of doping last month that prevents him from not only playing but from all forms of off-field rugby activity.
“Thilina Wijesinghe had taken this banned substance while undergoing training with the national squad in August 2019 prior to the commencement of the 2019 League season,” Kandy SC’s president Mahesh Weerasinghe said in a statement.
According to Kandy SC, Wijesinghe had played in just three inter club matches after taking the illegal drug and was suspended from the club in December 2019.
“Our club takes a serious view of players taking banned performance enhancing drugs and we immediately suspended Wijesinghe from the club no sooner than we were made aware that he had taken a banned substance,” said Weerasinghe.
While declaring that Kandy SC was in no way a partner to what it called an “irresponsible act” by Wijesinghe, the club said that his contract with them was also terminated and all payments stopped.
Weerasinghe said that Wijesinghe’s exit from Kandy SC after playing just three games in 2019 took him to enroll at an unnamed club in Colombo.
Kandy SC has been one of the most successful sporting teams in South Asia dominating Sri Lanka’s domestic club rugby set-up for more than 20 years and its players receive payments that rival clubs in Colombo cannot match.
They are also the only club that can attract a packed venue for matches especially in Kandy while only a handful of spectators patronize the once elite Colombo clubs due to poor quality of play.
Their clout is such that Sri Lanka Rugby, the sport’s governing body, does not stand a chance when it comes to tackling issues like withdrawing from tournaments organized not to Kandy SC’s liking.
Kandy SC has more than half the Sri Lanka squad in its ranks which has made them the envy of rival teams like CR and FC, Havelocks and CH and FC which basked in glory until the late 1990s.