CEO Ghimire pleads guilty of leaking five-year plan, other info to media; Statute Amendment Committee formed

KATHMANDU: The Annual General Meeting of Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) today decided to hold elections of the controversial body that has been running under various leaderships after the top officials were charged in graft case.

The AGM — which was extended to second day following the time constraint while discussing over the reports submitted by acting President Deepak Koirala, acting General Secretary Uttam Karmacharya and Treasurer Sailesh Chaudhary — passed all three documents but with certain amendment.

The Meeting then declared a nine-point declaration that includes the fresh elections on November 6-7 in Bhairahawa. “We want to take fresh mandate from the representatives as we are forced to hold elections before the four-year term ends,” said Koirala. The first ever electoral congress of the CAN in December 2011 had elected Tanka Angbuhang-led committee.

Angbuhang and General Secretary Ashok Nath Pyakurel along with eight other officials stepped down in June 2012 after the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority filed graft case against them at the Special Court. Senior Vice-president TB Shah nominated as the acting President but his demise earlier this year forced another vacuum in the cricket governing body. Koirala took helm of the board, while Karmacharya and Chaudhary were nominated as the acting General Secretary and Treasurer respectively.

The current committee came under intense pressure from International Cricket Council and Asian Cricket Council for holding the AGM for two years and the international bodies stopped providing funds for not following the instructions. “Now that we have held the AGM, we will submit the reports to the ICC and ACC and we hope the problem will be solved in due course,” Koirala added.

Asked about the contract extension of coach Pubudu Dassanayake, Koirala said the CAN would request the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS) to hire the coach for two years. “We have already made a formal request and will do that again. If not, we will renew coach’s contract till December,” he added. The coach, whose contract will expire on July 15 — midway through the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifiers slated for July 6-26 in Ireland and Scotland — after the MoYS amended the dates earlier this week.

According to a source, CEO Bhawana Ghimire was heavily criticised for giving the five-year plan to media before submitting that to the board. “The board members and the representatives raised serious questions regarding the leakage of the documents and demanded explanation from the CEO. “The issue was sorted out after a sobbing Ghimire said sorry and assured the AGM of not repeating such behaviours,” the source added.

Koirala said the issue was raised in the AGM and we have directed the acting General Secretary Karmacharya to deal with the media from now on. Asked about contract extension, which expires after a month, Koirala said the executive committee would take suitable decision later. He also said the CAN was in process to hire a new Finance Manager for three months as a consultant following the resignation of Prakash Maharjan, who was not satisfied with the three-month extension after the end of six-month probation period.

The AGM also decided to form a five-member Statute Amendment Committee headed by Karmacharya with Treasurer Sailesh Kumar Chaudhary, Hari Regmi of Dhangadhi, Suresh Lal Shrestha of Biratnagar and Pradeep Majgaiya of Nepalgunj. The AGM representatives also blamed the leadership of conspiracy while nominating officials to attend T20 Qualifiers. CAN last week nominated acting president Koirala and COO Chumbi Lama as team leader and manager respectively. The source said Koirala kept it mum and let go the issue.

Key decisions

•    To hold elections on November 6-7 in Bhairahawa. Sets deadline of October 2 for districts

•    Approves reports of president and general secretary with amendment and endorses treasurer’s financial report

•    Decides to provide regions with Rs 100,000 and districts with Rs 50,000 per year to run office and cricketing activities

•    Forms five-member Statute Amendment Committee under Karmacharya