KATHMANDU: The Annual General Assembly of Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) was put on hold here today after it failed to pass the reports submitted by the office bearers.

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Acting President Deepak Koirala, acting General Secretary Uttam Karmacharya and Treasurer Sailesh Chaudhary presented next year’s plans and programmes, yearly report and financial report respectively but none of them got green signals from the representatives of the AGM.

The AGM, where the media was not invited, got underway without any guest because of the officials’ infighting to select the one as they failed to choose one among Minister for Youth and Sports, Secretary at MoYS and Member Secretary of National Sports Council. According to a source, the officials were divided in inviting the chief guest and other guests.

The low-key assembly turned into a heated one in the closed session when the representatives from districts and regions criticised the office bearers of failing to work for the development of the sport and demanded their resignation. “You all are failures and should resign from your posts,” a source quoted one representative saying in the closed session. “Most of the speakers on the first day were not happy with the working ways of the leadership and they demanded the committee members step down,” the source added.

The AGM was extended for the second day by the leadership citing time constraint and it will resume on Saturday morning. “All the representatives could not present their views on the reports presented in the closed session as we ran out of time today,” informed acting President Koirala, who has been leading the cricket governing body after the demise of acting President TB Shah.

Koirala accepted many representatives were not happy with the board. “The association is running under difficult situation and we are also willing to pave way for the new committee. If everything goes as planned, we will have a electoral assembly within the next six months,” he added. CAN fell in turmoil due to internal conflict, with Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority charging 10 officials in graft case. The CAN meeting then nominated senior Vice-president Shah as the acting President but his death pushed the cricket governing body into vacuum and Koirala took helm.

One of the representatives, Birgunj district President Prabhat Chaurasiya said the CAN leadership was not loyal to the sport. “If they are not loyal to the organisation they are in, they do not have rights to stay. So we asked them to step down and proposed of forming an ad hoc committee,” Chaurasiya told The Himalayan Times. “CAN is in deep trouble, there is no system in place and people are running the body as per their will,” Chaurasiya added.

Regarding the president’s proposal, Chaurasiya said there was nothing significant in the report. “It has got the elements that a proposal should have. Any one can write that. He wants to take cricket to next level but the implementation part is the most important one,” he said. “Telling someone that I will give you good food and giving it in real are two different things,” Chaurasiya added.

Chaurasiya said the second day is expected to discuss about the issues related to regions and districts. “We produce the champion players and the CAN gets funds from international bodies based on their performance. But the governing body gives nothing to us,” Chaurasiya added. “The relation of regions and districts with the central committee should be cleared as we have not received anything in the last two years, neither programmes nor funds,” he added.

The International Cricket Council and Asian Cricket Council, the two international bodies that fund the Nepal cricket, have stopped the aid for not following their instructions. Because of internal conflict, CAN had not hold the AGM for the last two years and the international bodies were not happy with the working ways of the leadership at the board.