Tillekeratne apologises and escapes punishment

The NCC episode involving two Sri Lanka Test cricketers took a dramatic turn when Hashan Tillakaratne submitted an unconditional apology to Sidath Wettimuny, hours before the NCC executive committee met to decide on his fate on Friday.

Tillakaratne's letter read: "I wish to unconditionally retract all the statements made by me to the newspapers and to all other media about the incident concerning Sidath Wettimuny.

"I also wish to express my humble apologies to Wettimuny, members of his family and to the cricket loving public, for the inconvenience caused to them by such articles and the incident which took place at the NCC. Let the game of cricket be the ultimate winner".

Following Tillakaratne's letter, NCC president Leslie Hewage said that Wettimuny had also written to the club stating that he had no further interest in the matter.

The NCC executive committee thus decided to severely reprimand Tillakaratne for his conduct and said that a repetition of such an incident would result in him losing his club membership.

Hewage said that the three-member committee appointed by the club to inquire into the incident had found Tillakaratne guilty of the offence.

Wettimuny, a former Test opener and national selector was threatened with his life and abused in filth at the NCC premises by Tillakaratne last month when he went to pick up his son from cricket coaching classes.

Wettimuny subsequently lodged a complaint with the police. Tillakaratne, a member of the national squad, in a statement to the press denied the allegations and further accused Wettimuny for all that had happened.

The NCC going on the statements given by Wettimuny, Tillakaratne and Rumesh Ratnayake, a key witness to the incident, subsequently suspended Tillakaratnefrom the club until the three-member committee completed their investigations.

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