Nepal’s cricket is all but certain to face suspension with the game’s stakeholders yet to take any firm measure to address the warning issued by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

The ICC on February 18 had said its board may consider a range of sanctions, including suspension of the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) due to the prolonged dispute in governance.

Nepali cricket has seen a dual existence in administration when the National Sports Council (NSC) formed an ad-hoc committee under Ramesh Silwal on January 8, 25 days after a faction from the Tanka Aangbuhang-headed CAN held elections under controversial circumstances.

NSC, country’s top sports governing body, had previously directed CAN to halt the general assembly and consequently its elections. NSC then refused to recognise the new committee claiming it was formed without completing a “proper electoral procedure”. The election also didn’t have support from Aangbuhang, who chose to stay out of cricket.

The new committee, headed by Chatur Bahadur Chand, had moved the Supreme Court against the NSC decision but since then cricket has come to a standstill with the court verdict yet to come.

The deadlock has not only cast doubt on Nepal’s ICC World Cricket League Championship (WCLC) home matches against Namibia— scheduled for April 16 and 18 at the TU stadium in Kirtipur—but also financially paralysed Nepali cricket.

Due to the ongoing crisis, the world cricket governing body has blocked in excess to $900,000, which CAN was supposed to receive from the ICC as cricket development grant since 2014. But despite the grav e crisis, the concerned authorities have not yet come up with a concrete solution.

Silwal believed the court verdict is the only solution for the current impasse. “The government did the best in interest of the game. There has been delay in court decision but its the only way out. The supreme court needs to come up with a verdict as soon as possible,” said Silwal.

Nepal has until April to sort out the issue before the ICC board meets and Silwal said a further delay in court decision would force everyone convene “an all-party meeting.” “If the Supreme Court doesn’t come up with a decision by the end of February, we have to come up with an alternative to make sure the crisis ends,” said Silwal without specifying an alternative to resolve crisis.

Ashok Nath Pyakurel, general secretary of the Chand-led committee, said its the government that has to initiate to solve the problem. “Nepal government and NSC are the regulatory bodies in Nepali sports. If the government is not recognising us then how can a non-existent committee come up with a solution,” said Pyakurel.

“The best thing is to wait for the court verdict. We don’t want cricket to suffer. Keeping in mind the time court takes to issue verdict, we are open with any kind of solution that NSC comes up with in the larger interest of cricket. Every stakeholder needs to be responsible and the government has comparatively a bigger role to play,” said Pyakurel.

NSC Member Secretary Keshab Bista, who did a lot of exercise before forming the ad-hoc committee, remained firm in not recognising the Chand-led body. “If the problem persists, we have to come with a negotiation. The government acted in the best interest of the game and it will remain firm in its decision,” said Bista.  “We are quite aware that the committee had not completed electoral procedures. Negotiation can be done individually but we cannot recognise the committee,” the member secretary added.