Kathmandu, November 3
The International Cricket Council has taken note of the reservations expressed by members of the proposed Nepal advisory committee over the panel’s terms of reference.
The world governing body has also said it will soon send a delegation to Nepal to work on the issues raised by the members of the proposed committee.
“The ICC has said it has taken note of the reservations, and is positive on discussing it,” said Sports Ministry joint secretary Chudamani Paudel, one of the proposed members of the committee.
He said the ICC is ready to send a delegation to Nepal, but it is yet to decide who is going to be sent.
The world governing body had proposed that former CAN President Binay Raj Pandey, Ministry of Sports Joint Secretary Chudamani Sharma, former CAN Vice-president Deepak Koirala, former skipper Pawan Agrawal, Sports Council’s Rohit Dahal and businessman Basant Chaudhary be on the committee. The ICC’s Ammar Sheikh had been proposed the committee coordinator.
The proposal came from the ICC few weeks after CEO David Richardson came to Nepal in September and held talks with local stakeholders. Richardson during his visit, had announced that the ICC would form the committee within two weeks.
Nepal’s Cricket Association was suspended by the ICC in April this year citing government interference in the administration of the sport in the country.
Nepal’s government says the International Cricket Council’s proposed terms of reference for the to-be-formed advisory committee is not acceptable. The committee, which is to review Nepal’s cricket association’s charter and to prepare a plan to establish a new board, cannot function if the ICC dictates terms to the government, it says.
Following the suspension of Cricket Association of Nepal by the ICC in April, the international body has been in regular consultation with local stakeholders. The ICC is learnt to have tried hard to get the Chatur Bahadur Chand (‘elected CAN’) faction to come on board the committee before formally proposed to the government names of people it wants on the committee.
The Nepal government also says the draft ToR does not reflect the agreement it reached with the ICC in September. The government says, it would be against the protocol for an ICC staffer Ammar Sheikh to lead a committee, which has a senior Nepali official as its member.
Similarly, the government says it, and not the ICC, should implement the report prepared by the new committee. It has also expressed reservations over a provision in the draft that allows the ICC to sack any committee member whenever it wants to. The government has said it wants the committee to run cricket activities in Nepal until fresh elections for the new board are held.
