KATHMANDU, Apr 20: The Special General Assembly (SGA) of the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) held in Kathmandu on Thursday has passed its statute without making any changes in the version earlier amended and endorsed by the advisory group of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
This move has come at a time when Nepal is working to lay ground for reinstatement of CAN at the ICC Annual General Meeting (AGM) in July. Two years ago, ICC suspended the CAN citing government intervention and internal disputes within the organization. The SGA was planned for Thursday and Friday to consider changes in the statute, if any, to make reforms in governance in the sport and pave the way toward reinstatement of ICC membership of the CAN. Members from 39 districts registered to CAN and 15 members of elected body of CAN were present in the assembly. However, the final decision was passed in the assembly on Thursday.
The SGA considered the proposed changes to the statute recommended by the Advisory Group. Adoption of changes has enabled CAN to move toward meeting the reinstatement criteria set out by the ICC in May 2016. The sub-section 3 (a) of section 23 in Chapter 9, which is about the inclusion of current national cricketers in the administrative body of CAN, was discussed extensively. The proposal to include seven members from Nepal Sports Council (NSC) and Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS) was rejected as that would lay ground for more governmental interference in the apex body of the national cricket.
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The ICC had suspended the membership of CAN citing government interference in Nepali cricket. The NSC had formed an ad hoc committee in March 2016, refusing to give recognition to the elected committee under Chatur Bahadur Chand. NSC Member Secretary Keshab Kumar Bista had claimed to have taken ICC consent before forming the ad hoc committee. Chand-led faction then moved the Supreme Court against the NSC decision.
The ICC board maintained that it doesn’t accept government interference in the affairs of its members as it wants all its members work independently with the best intentions of promoting and developing the game in their respective territories in accordance with the ICC’s objectives and strategy.
What next: Laying ground for reinstatement in ICC
Five-member monitoring team will be formed consisting three representatives from ICC and one each from the CAN and the NSC. The newly-formed monitoring team will assess the recently completed elections in 37 district chapters of CAN. The team will direct the districts to hold elections again if any foul play is suspected. Similarly, the districts, Bhaktpur and Lalitpur which are yet to hold elections will be asked to do so within a given time-frame.
After the completion of elections of all 39 districts, new elections will be held to form provincial committees. And finally, a new central elected body of CAN will be formed with a view to prepare a situation for ending the suspension of CAN membership in the ICC.
With Nepal’s recent achievement of securing One Day International (ODI) status for the first time in its history and the adoption of the revised statute at the SGA will lay Nepal’s strong ground for reinstatement of its membership in ICC Annual General Meeting (AGM) in July 2018.
