The elected committee of the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) on Friday said it would get flexible to an extent to solve the existing problem in Nepali cricket.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on April 25 had suspended CAN for a leadership vacuum in country’s cricket governing body. The suspension has seen a halt in fund from the ICC although national teams will continue to participate in international tournaments. Nepal has seen a dual existence of CAN with one elected through a controversial midnight elections and the other formed by the National Sports Council (NSC)—the country’s supreme body of sports.

ICC said it “suspended the membership of CAN for breach of Article 2.9 of the ICC’s Articles of Association, which prohibits government interference and requires free and fair elections”. Ashok Nath Pyakurel, General Secretary of the elected CAN, said his committee was ready to work with government and NSC to solve the existing problem. “We already had talks with the NSC months before the suspension. We had assured of getting flexible if it comes with a concrete plan,” said Pyakurel.

“We repeat our stance once again that if the government comes up with a concrete plan in solving this problem, we are not going to get rigid. We don’t want cricket to suffer and will take a flexible approach. There are certain issues in terms of the democratic practice which the government needs to address,” added Pyakurel blaming the government of not taking the issue seriously.

“The problem had already begun with the intervention of the government. We were well aware of the outcome but the government never took us seriously. If the government and NSC think that they are the guardians of cricket, both need to initiate in solving this crisis,” Pyakurel said.

The elected body of the CAN, under the presidency of Chatur Bahadur Chand, was formed on December 14 following a controversial election skipped by then president Tanka Aangbuhang and his faction. NSC, who refused to recognise the elected body claiming the elections were held without completing due procedures, then formed an ad-hoc committee under Ramesh Nath Silwal on January 7.

Under the circumstance, the ICC organised Nepal’s World Cricket League Championship matches against Namibia on April 16 and 18 with its direct involvement bypassing both the committees.  In its statement on April 25, ICC said it would now work with the Nepalese cricket community, and other stakeholders, in order to assist with the development of a sustainable governance and administration structure of cricket in Nepal.

The ICC has also made it clear that the CAN suspension will remain until the time Nepali cricket is free from government interference and is properly structured so as to exploit the tremendous cricket talent and opportunities that exist in Nepal.