Kathmandu, January 26
Hours after Seven3Sports blamed the Cricket Association of Nepal for all irregularities in the controversial NepalT20 Cricket League, the CAN officials came up with excuses in their defense.
CAN President Chatur Bahadur Chand accepted his association's weakness in handing over the NepalT20 rights to Indian company, Seven3Sports. "We failed to read them properly although we studied a lot about the company. It was a fault on our part to rope in Seven3Sports as Strategical and Commercial partner of the NepalT20," said Chand at a press meet.
The inaugural edition of the NepalT20 came under fire from the beginning after reports of irregularities that included spot fixing. The investigation committee formed by the National Sports Council on Wednesday recommended the NSC to take stern action against the CAN for not following proper procedures stated in the National Sports Development Act, while the Central Bureau of Investigation of Nepal Police has already arrested two cricketers after reaching to the conclusion of spot-fixing.
CAN President Chand - who stayed away from the spot-fixing accusations saying the case under investigation by the Nepal Police - claimed his committee wanted to move ahead correcting the past mistakes. "Suspension of CAN executive committee is not a solution. We have a busy schedule ahead and we would like to focus on the preparations of the national team," said Chand. "We will definitely correct the mistakes and move towards right track."
The NSC-formed committee has recommended the sports governing body to suspend the CAN from one to three months and end the NepalT20 contract with Seven3Sports apart from coordinating with the CIB in spot-fixing case and coordinate with the International Cricket Council regarding the findings of the committee. The CIB claimed a total of 10 individuals - players, manager and officials - were involved in spot-fixing and it has already arrested national team all-rounder Aadil Ansari and former Nepal international Mehboob Alam.
Meanwhile, the Seven3Sports refuted all the claims of CIB. "All the allegations of match-fixing by Seven3Sports are totally baseless and concocted. Seven- 3Sports strongly denies all such claims. These are unverified and misinformed content without any evidence," said Seven- 3Sports in a release. Seven- 3Sports said CAN was responsible of organising the tournament as "the role definition is clear - Seven3Sports as the commercial partner while the league is owned and organised by CAN."
Seven3Sports said the tournament was organised by the CAN with its officials. "CAN appointed the tournament director and technical head, who was in charge of running and controlling the affairs of the matches, along with match referee, umpires, match officials, scorer, groundsmen, curator, anti-corruption officers and integrity officers. The job of Seven3Sports was over when the first ball was bowled," it added.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 27, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
