The crisis in the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) has deepened after a faction on Tuesday morning formed a new committee with the country’s supreme sports body, National Sports Council (NSC), quickly responding by calling it illegitimate.

The general assembly from a faction led by General Secretary Ashok Nath Pyakurel and Vice-presidents Chatur Bahadur Chand and Binod Mainali was held in a controversial circumstance after NSC refused to authenticate it claiming the procedures were against the statute. Despite the scenes of altercation and police interventions, the general assembly carried on to elect a 17-member committee under Chand at 3:30am on Tuesday.

NSC, which had directed to call off the assembly and refrained from sending electoral representatives, said it doesn’t recognise the committee. “There are a group of people who want to make CAN a private limited. CAN is not their property,” said NSC Member Secretary Keshav Bista.

The dispute over the legitimacy of CAN is expected to escalate further after Bista talked about forming another body seeking “all-party political agreement”. “The current committee is ineligible and we need to bring in people willing to work for the development of the game,” added Bista.

“Nepali cricket needs a stronger board but its formation will take time as it needs to be done by the parliament through the amendment of statute. The best option to break the deadlock is by forming an ad-hoc committee through political agreement. The ad-hoc body will have a mandate of holding elections within three months or form a board,” informed Bista.

Bista’s statement came on the day when youth leaders from top political parties were rumoured to take over the CAN’s reins. CPN-UML Secretary Yogesh Bhattarai and Nepali Congress leader Gagan Thapa were rumoured to be taking the top posts. Bista, however, refuted the claims. “The reports are baseless. We are yet to begin dialogue with political parties,” said Bista who added the new body will be recognised by international governing bodies. “The ICC (International Cricket Council) is quite aware how Nepali cricket

has run for the last four years. We are in direct correspondence with ICC and it will be ready to work with the new body,” he said.

Pyakurel, who was retained as general secretary on Tuesday, denied that their AGM was staged forcefully. “We admit what unfolded yesterday (Monday) was unfortunate. We should have gone through consensus,” said Pyakurel. “It was not an overnight decision to hold the general assembly. NSC was made aware of that and we have followed all due procedures,” said Pyakurel adding Monday’s annual general meeting was about safeguarding CAN’s legitimacy.

“We had no other options but to go for elections because it was the only way to give legitimacy to our committee. A majority of the members in the meeting had given us the mandate to hold elections,” he added. Pyakurel was confident the new committee would be recognised internationally.

“We have not formed a parallel body. We have chosen the members from the same committee and followed the ICC charter,” said Pyakurel. NSC member Binod Mainali was elected first vice-president with Shailesh Chaudhary and Diwakar Ghale named vice-presidents.

Jeena Shrestha, Daud Ansari, Thakur Pratap Thapa, Kiran Rana, Raj Babu Shrestha, Prashant Bikram Malla, Sanjay Singh, Jayanti Bhatta, Roshan Singh, Rishiram Gautam, Ratan Kathayat and Hari Regmi were unanimously elected as members.

Mainali under NSC scanner

KATHMANDU: The National Sports Council (NSC) will seek clarification from its member Binod Mainali for going against the country’s supreme sports’ body. Mainali, on Tuesday morning, was elected the first vice-president from CAN general assembly held by a faction of the cricket body. His election comes after NSC directed the faction to call off the assembly. “He is a board member and we will definitely seek clarification from him. If he is found guilty, he can be suspended from NSC,” said NSC Member Secretary Keshav Bista on Tuesday.