Kusal Perera cleared of doping charges

Kusal Perera, the Sri Lanka wicketkeeper-batsman, is free to resume playing cricket with immediate effect after the ICC lifted the provisional suspension imposed on him for doping. The ICC said there was no decisive evidence that Perera, who was suspended in December 2015, had used performance-enhancing substances after a detailed examination of the Qatar-based testing facility's finding 19-Norandrostenedione - the banned substance - in Perera's sample.
The withdrawal is the result of a sustained challenge from Perera's legal team, who according to the ICC "in a recent letter", had "suggested for the first time that the Qatar laboratory might have misidentified impurities in the samples as 19-Norandrostenedione, given the very low concentrations of that substance found in the samples".

In response, the ICC said it hired an independent expert to review all of the Qatar laboratory's findings. Though the expert concluded the lab had correctly identified the substance in the samples, the expert's view was that the lab's finding was not sustainable. This was because, "for various scientific and technical reasons, it could not be ruled out that the 19-Norandrostenedione was produced naturally in the player's body and/or formed in the samples after the player provided them."

The Most Effective Way to Educate the Public

Producing and communicating a cohesive message that's meant to educate a large group of people is a difficult process to set up and put into place, and an even harder one to control. The scope of the message and the action that you want your audience to take can be cast aside -- or worse, not seen at all -- if it's not picked up by the mass media. How can you build on the knowledge that your audience already has to deliver a message that meets your goals?
If you want to educate your audience, you'll first have to determine why:

* Do you want them to act or react in a certain way?
* Do you want to them to advocate for a particular situation?
* Do you want to build brand awareness for your company?
* Do you want people to change their behavior or influence their attitude?
Each of these goals involves educating your audience, but you have to reach them before you can educate them. In the past, public relations practitioners have concentrated on press releases that were tailored to newspapers and other media sources that attract large audiences. It was an easy way to share their stories. Since the advent of the internet, and the subsequent financial collapse that caused many newspapers to shrink, it's difficult to get a story covered, and editors are less likely to assign space in the paper when advertising is what pay the bills.