National Sports Council (NSC) Member Secretary Keshab Kumar Bista today said he would take moral responsibility for the suspension of Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) membership from the International Cricket Council.

Speaking at a programme organised by Press and Publicity Department of the NSC to review his one-year period, Bista claimed that the long-standing conflicts of CAN surfaced after he took helm of the sports governing body. “I will take moral responsibility for CAN’s suspension as it happened during my tenure but there were conflicts in the association since long time,” he said.

“We did not give permission of CAN elections after the then President Tanka Aangbuhang requested us to stop the election process. And we formed the ad hoc committee by coordinating with the ICC,” claimed Bista, adding, “The recent crisis in cricket is the result of the court case filed by elected committee.”

He also said that the controversies in boxing and table tennis associations were not created by the NSC. “We are not responsible for that. Boxing did not ask for permission to hold elections, while a faction announced the committee after the election committee had postponed the process in the case of table tennis,” he said.

In another context, Bista said that the seventh National Games would be organised on announced dates and venue. “If the games is not organised on time, there are no chances that the event will be held this year. Last time we had to postpone the games twice for the unavailability of budget and protests in Terai,” he said. The Games is slated for November.

Bista said only the tour of Thailand with judo team was meaningless and all others were important for Nepali sports.

Member Secretary Bista also said heating system swimming pool would be constructed before 13th South Asian Games and claimed that a record number of projects were initiated in infrastructure development.

He also claimed that Nepal’s participation in the 12th SA Games was possible only because of his strong will power. “No one except for me would have taken the risk of making it to the event at a time when the government had not released fund on time,” he said.