Nepali cricket took a big stride towards retaining ICC membership as the constitution amendment draft proposed by the Advisory Group was unanimously approved on Thursday by the Special General Meeting (SGM) of the elected committee of the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN).

While the onfield exploits from the national cricket team has lifted the country to One-Day International status recently, off the field cricket has been in turmoil for the last two years since the International Cricket Council (ICC) suspended CAN under the pretext of government interference and suspension on April 25, 2016.

ICC then formed an Advisory Group which was tasked to review constitution of the CAN and propose the amendment which the latter did. The elected committee, which joined the Advisory Group lately, passed the amendments in its previous SGM on August 23 following several tri-party discussions that also involved the ICC. The SGM also decided to hold fresh elections by December 24 last year.

However, ICC termed the elections inappropriate claiming the amendments were passed against the past agreements as the process to reinstate CAN’s membership further prolonged. Thursday’s SGM was held after the elected committee had series of discussions with the ICC and Advisory Group. With all the amendments passed, cricket has finally found a way out to get back its ICC membership.

“There were few issues of concern. We had discussions whether we need to get them modified or not. We had the primary concern that if we stick to those issues then the process of reinstatement might get prolonged. So we put those concerns aside because we have rooms to get those issues addressed in future and decided to approve the entire amendment,” informed Ashok Nath Pyakuryal, the general secretary of the elected committee.

“There were a few basic concerns like whether we need to hold re-election of the member districts and confusion over interpreting this two full-terms (of the governing body). What could be the consequences if we give the membership in the executive committee to the existing national cricketers was another concern for us. But we decided to document these concerns to bring it in the next special general meeting so that we find a way out,” said Pyakuryal adding that CAN has moved into a process of reinstatement.

“ICC has assured us that going by this process, we are moving into a step towards reinstatement. From our (elected committee) part, we have left no stone unturned. We want to see CAN suspension be lifted. We have got into a point where we have left our issues of resentment in the back-burner. The ball is in the ICC’s court now,” added Pyakuryal.

Chatur Bahadur Chand, president of the elected committee, said the approval was the need of the hour. “We admit that the previous SGM had not approved the amendment from the Advisory Group fully. We are in a situation where Nepali cricket has scaled a new height after gaining the ODI status. Everyone needed to think above their personal benefits and work in the betterment of cricket,” said Chand.

What next?

The constitution amendment of the CAN now has to be endorsed by the National Sports Council (NSC), the supreme body of Nepali sports.

Following the approval from NSC, the current elected committee will go under suspension.

ICC will then work in forming a monitoring committee that will include three members from the ICC, one from the elected committee and one from the NSC.

The monitoring committee will evaluate the elections that were held in member districts and if required will hold re-elections. 37 out of 39 CAN member districts have already held elections. Lalitpur and Bhaktapur will have fresh elections.

After districts, elections will be held in all seven provinces and they will be followed by the central elections.

The ICC will have its board meeting in July and if all the processes till the formation of new body are validated, the suspension of CAN will be lifted.