Sri Lanka fast-bowler Nuwan Thushara has quietly withdrawn the court case he brought against Sri Lanka Cricket, ending a month-long stand-off over the no-objection certificate he never received for IPL 2026.
The move became public on Thursday when lawyers for the 31-year-old told the Colombo District Court he no longer wished to pursue the matter. By then, RCB had played most of their group matches and still hadn’t named a replacement, so the legal fight already looked academic.
“Much of the tournament has gone,” a person close to the player said, adding that Thushara had “no appetite for a drawn-out battle that helps nobody”.
ESPNcricinfo earlier reported that Thushara sent a written apology to SLC last week. In that note, he is understood to have accepted the board’s right to set fitness standards, though he still believes the late switch to a stricter policy hurt him. Back in his original petition he called the fitness-based NOC “unreasonable” and “a barrier to my livelihood”.
Whether he still intends to retire from international cricket remains unclear. The application he filed on 2 April said he wished to quit, yet those around him now sound less certain. Either way, under the board’s revised protocols he would have to hit minimum strength and conditioning targets before any recall is discussed.
SLC’s stance is that consistency matters. Officials point out that the same Yo-Yo and skin-fold benchmarks apply to all centrally-contracted players. “You can’t allow one rule for some and another rule for the rest,” an administrator said. Thushara argues his numbers have “hardly changed” since 2024, when he last played in the IPL for Mumbai Indians, and that nobody questioned them then.
The legal timeline never really favoured him. Filing just before the Easter court holiday meant the first substantive hearing only took place on 9 April, with a further adjournment to 23 April. By that stage RCB had already played six matches.
Thushara’s international record stands at 30 T20Is, the slingy action earning occasional comparisons with Lasith Malinga. He moved from Mumbai to Bengaluru in the 2025 auction but has yet to bowl a ball for the franchise.
For now, both sides seem to have parked hostilities. Thushara must decide whether to chase an international return or focus on franchise cricket, while SLC will hope the episode underlines – rather than undermines – its renewed insistence on fitness first.
