Dhananjaya de Silva withdraws from WI tour after father's murder

Sri Lanka's top order batsman Dhananjaya de Silva has withdrawn from Sri Lanka's tour of West Indies after the brutal assassination of his father, Ranjan de Silva.

Less than 12 hours before the Sri Lankan team boarded the flight to Dubai and from there to the Caribbean, De Silva's father was gunned down in the Mount Lavinia, a municipality south of Colombo. He was pronounced dead upon admission to the Kalubowila Hospital while two others with him during the incident suffered injuries.

Dhananjaya's teammates rushed to the hospital after the shocking news. Ranjan de Silva had recently contested in the local government elections.

The 26-year-old Dhananjaya, who has played 13 Test matches, made a comeback during the Delhi Test match against India last year. His unbeaten hundred helped in the second innings helped Sri Lanka save the game and kept the series defeat down to 0-1 scoreline. He carried that form to the Bangladesh series, scoring a big hundred in the Chittagong Test.