Newly elected CAN President Chand confident ICC suspension will be lifted

KATHMANDU, Sept 30: Newly elected Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) President Chatur Bahadur Chand said he is confident the International Cricket Council (ICC) will remove the suspension on Nepal’s cricket governing body next month.

Nepali cricket has been marred in crisis following the suspension of the CAN in April 2016 by the ICC citing duel existence of cricketing body and government interference.

A panel of the previous CAN committee led by Tanka Aangbuhang had held general assembly and election without consent from the National Sports Council (NSC) and elected a new leadership under Chand in December 2015.

But the NSC had refused to recognize the new leadership saying the election was held without its support and formed an ad-hoc committee under Ramesh Silwal (currently NSC Member Secretary).

Following the NSC’s move to give legal status to the new leadership, the Chand-led committee had challenged the supreme sporting body’s decision at the court –leading to the suspension of the CAN.

“In light of the ongoing court case involving the Cricket Association of Nepal and the ad hoc committee established by Nepal’s National Sports Council, which has led to a vacuum of cricket leadership in Nepal, the [ICC] board has suspended the membership of CAN,” the ICC said.

But as the CAN has successfully held its election under the supervision of the Independent Panel formed in line with the CAN statute and elected Chand as the new president again, the cricketing body is hopeful the ban will be lifted by the ICC in its board meeting, which is scheduled to be held on Oct 12-13.

“The CAN was suspended because of the government interference and lack of free and fair election,” said Chand speaking during an interaction program organized by the Reporters’ Club Nepal on Monday.

“But this time, there is no government interference in this election and the Independent Panel of the ICC held the election in a free and fair manner.”

“Furthermore, the elected CAN had no role in the conducted election.”

“The panel will submit its report and the ICC will put the agenda in the next meeting.”

“It is our top priority to reinstate the CAN. We have worked as per the condition of the ICC. Thus, I am confident the ICC will lift the suspension of CAN membership in the October meeting,” he said. “There is no doubt.”

The annual general meeting of the CAN (from Sept 27- 28) was confirmed by the ICC following a meeting with the NSC Member Secretary Silwal.

ICC also confirmed that the CAN Annual General Meeting has been scheduled for September 27 and 28 following a meeting with Silwal

Chand clarified that the CAN has been free of political interference since the ban and vowed not to let the cricketing body fall into further controversy in the coming days.

“We have discussed how to run the cricketing administration in a transparent way.

“Our first plan after the lifting of the ban is to run the CAN commercially and in an unbiased manner and,” he added.