Reports | Kusal Perera set to earn US$ 500,000 as compensation from WADA

In what will be a humongous payout, Sri Lankan batsman Kusal Perera is all set to receive US$ 500,000 from the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) as the organization wrongfully suspended him in December 2015. After a Qatar based lab found banned substances in the urine samples of the Sri Lankan batsman, Perera was banned provisionally by the ICC, something that led to him missing six months of cricketing action. However, in May 2016, a Paris-based lab found that the initial findings discovered in the Qatar-based lab’s reports were not sustainable, after which the ICC lifted the ban that was imposed on the 29-year-old. 

According to a report by island.lk, due to the legal proceedings that were involved in the case, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is said to have incurred a loss close to US$ 100,000, an amount which Perera paid back to the board through his match fees, but now WADA are all set to bear the costs whilst also repaying the Lankan cricketer with a compensation of US$ 500,000.

In what was a tedious six months between December 2015 and May 2016 for Perera, the player had to sit through multiple drug tests and even a polygraph test. The 29-year-old was also summoned in Paris to undergo ‘hair analysis’. Eventually, the tests confirmed that the batsman did not consume any banned substances. After it was discovered that the findings of the initial reports from the Qatar-based lab were incorrect, both the ICC and the WADA blacklisted the lab due to its grave error. 

Perera was set to face a lengthy four-year ban from cricket, but once the air was cleared on the matter, the ICC dropped the ban and the charges on the batsman, stating, "We wish to make it clear that there is no evidence that Mr Perera has ever used performance-enhancing substances." Perera is finally set to receive compensation, after four long years, after his legal team negotiated with the parties involved.