Sri Lankan cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka can use the WhatsApp messaging service and go out at night again after having his bail for rape charges varied.

Gunathilaka, 31, applied to vary his bail in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday.

He is facing four counts of sexual intercourse without consent and has not yet entered a plea.

After matching on Tinder, meeting up for a date and heading back to her home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, the complainant alleges the cricketer refused to wear a condom and choked her three times. She cannot be identified. Gunathilaka was banned from using Tinder and other social media platforms when he was granted bail by a magistrate in November 2022. The Crown consented to varying his bail on Thursday so that he can once again use WhatsApp, an encrypted messaging platform owned by Facebook-parent Meta, and popular in his home country.

Magistrate Jennifer Atkinson clarified the restrictions on his new freedom to use the platform.“It’s not to be used for the purposes of facilitating or managing dating,” she said.Crown prosecutor George Rixon opposed an application to vary a condition on a night-time curfew, however it was granted by the magistrate.

Mr Rixon said the curfew was needed to mitigate the risk of offending based on the alleged facts of the complainant’s statement, specifically, Gunathilaka’s “aggressive sexual behavior” against her.

“There are likely to be more opportunities for this alleged offending to occur at night,” he said.