Ryanair has disputed Kumar Sangakkara’s claim of discrimination at Dublin Airport, saying the former Sri Lanka captain refused to hand over visa documents during mandatory immigration checks. Sangakkara had accused gate staff of discriminatory and threatening behaviour towards his family.

The airline said the passenger “refused to provide the required visa documentation” when a gate agent asked for it during compulsory immigration checks, according to a statement reported by The Mirror. The reported statement does not describe what was said at the gate.

The airline said Sangakkara was cleared once checks were completed and his eligibility verified, and he flew the scheduled Dublin to Bristol service on October 28. The row is therefore mainly about treatment at the gate, not whether he travelled.

Sangakkara later gave a fuller account on X, alleging he was told “people like you with your kind of passports should expect this treatment”. He said objecting would have made the family a threat to other passengers and called the episode racist, not equal treatment.

His original post asked whether anyone else had encountered discriminatory gate staff at Ryanair in Dublin. He cited the tone of address, mishandled procedure and threatening behaviour, and called it unacceptable for any passenger, adding it was his “first bad experience in Dublin”.

Details of what led to the confrontation remain unclear, and the two accounts differ sharply. Sangakkara has not been quoted responding to the visa claim. Replying to Sri Lankan businessman Sanjiva Weerawarana, who shared his experiences of discrimination abroad, he called the experience “quite jarring”.

Sangakkara, 48, is the MCC president and head coach of Rajasthan Royals, where he is also director of cricket. He played 134 Tests, 404 ODIs and 56 T20Is for Sri Lanka, scoring 28,016 international runs before retiring in 2015.