Gives a month time for consensus; alternate plan in pipeline

Kathmandu, July 22

The ICC Advisory Committee today urged the Chatur Bahadur Chand-led group to approve the new statute of Cricket Association of Nepal to run the cricket governing body in the country.

Prior to the meeting of the Nepal Advisory Committee, ICC Development Committee Chairman Imran Khawaja had met with the elected body officials. “The meeting urged Chand and his team to approve the statute and pave way for new elections,” said Advisory Committee Spokesperson Rohit Dahal, who is also the Press Advisor of National Sports Council.

President Chand and General Secretary Ashok Nath Pyakurel, who were elected in the posts through a controversial annual general assembly in 2015, are also in the advisory committee headed by former president Binay Raj Pandey and industrialist Basant Chaudhary. “The elected body did not approve two clauses in the draft which was prepared by the Advisory Committee and sent to the ICC in May,” said Dahal. They had objections over the number of representatives from districts and provinces for the Annual General Meeting of CAN and that they wanted to hold the new elections after the statute was approved.

Dahal informed that the members of the advisory committee discussed on several issues related to the statute, including the issue of the number representatives for the AGM and Chand and Pyakurel were positive towards approving the statute. “Once the Chand-led committee approves the statute, National Sports Council and International Cricket Council will also approve it,” said Dahal, who added that ICC could form an interim committee to run the cricketing activities until the new body gets elected.

A highly-placed source close to the Advisory Committee claimed that the ICC was ready with alternate plan if the elected body did not come to consensus with in a month time. “The ICC officials asked the elected body to agree with the statute with in a month. If they did not do so, the ICC has prepared an alternate plan of dissolving all the bodies and assign a new committee to hold fresh elections,” the source said in condition of anonymity. “The case is different this time around. This is the final deadline for us, otherwise the ICC will take the charge.”

Dahal said that issues related to CAN’s suspension would be discussed during the ICC meeting to be held in October or November. The ICC suspended the membership of CAN citing the political interference and lack of free and fair elections in May last year. The eight-member advisory committee also comprises former national team skipper Pawan Agrawal (secretary), while former Joint Secretary of Ministry of Youth and Sports Choodamani Paudel and former acting president of CAN Deepak Koirala are the members.