Veteran fast bowler Lasith Malinga was fined and handed a suspended ban by Sri Lanka Cricket on Tuesday for his response to sports minister Dayasiri Jayasekara’s stinging assessment of the team after their Champions Trophy exit.

Malinga was banned for one year (suspended for six months) and fined 50 per cent of his next ODI match fee after he hit back at Jayasekara’s claim that the Sri Lanka team was unfit during the tournament.

Following Sri Lanka’s Champions Trophy group-stage exit earlier this month, Jayasekara said the team’s poor fielding display throughout the tournament was due to substandard fitness and their “big bellies”.

Malinga’s responded to the minister’s comments, saying: “I don’t care about criticism from those who are simply warming chairs,” he said.

“What does a monkey know about a parrot’s nesting hollow?

“This is like a monkey getting into a parrot’s nest and talking about it.”