Kathmandu, July 28

The stakeholders of Nepali cricket said they were ready to accept the International Cricket Council’s decisions for the betterment of the sport.

A three-member ICC team, which is here to assess the current scenario of Nepali cricket in the wake of the membership suspension of Cricket Association of Nepal — today held a joint meeting with presidents and general secretaries of both the committees of CAN along with Member Secretary of National Sports Council Member Secretary Keshab Kumar Bista.

Bista, who had a two-and-half-hour meeting with the ICC team of Asia Development Manager Bandula Warnapura, Finance Manager Amar Sheikh and Legal Section Chief Paul McMohan, said he had no option to accept the decision of international body. “Nothing has been settled as yet but things are heading towards positive direction,” said Bista. “And we don’t have much choice as well,” he added.

Bista said the ICC were in no mood to recognise the existing bodies of CAN and they were in favour of fresh elections through a neutral body. “We also want to have a new mandate and I think that will ease all the problems and the suspension will be lifted,” he added. “Although we don’t have option to accept the ICC decision, we are not in mood to follow all the things imposed by them. We will see what they have to offer,” said Bista.

The ICC had suspended the membership of CAN on April 25 alleging the government of interfering into the cricketing matters and also accused the board of not holding free and fair elections. The ICC step came after National Sports Council formed an ad hoc committee under Ramesh Silwal on Janaury 8, refusing to give recognition to the elected committee led by Chatur Bahadur Chand. The ICC board meeting later approved the suspension and decided to send a team to assess the situation. Chand-led body had on January 12 filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court and the apex court is yet to make the final call. The third AGM of CAN on December 14 last year had elected the 17-member executive committee under Chand.

Elected body President Chand said he weas clear about his team’s stance. “We want the ICC to allow us work freely as we are the elected ones. If they can prove that the elections were not held as per the constitution, they are free to knock us out and bring the new committee. We told them that we want to establish a system and ICC should back us,” said Chand. “The NSC Member Secretary Bista reiterated his stance of withdrawal of the court case and we requested him to dissolve the ad hoc committee first,” he added. “The team will prepare its report and I think the ICC will come up with a decision later. As they are the ones who make all the funding for the development of the sport, we are bound to follow their instructions. But we are certain that the ICC does not go beyond system and we are hopeful that the international body would come up with a fair decision,” Chand added.

General Secretary of the ad hoc committee Pawan Agrawal said all the stakeholders put in their version. “The ICC officials are positive towards resolving the crisis and hopefully a concrete decision will come from them in near future,” he said.