“We were unhappy with the lack of a stable leadership”
Image courtesy of: nepalnews.com
The Nepal government have decided to dissolve the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) due to their incompetence.
The order to dissolve CAN was passed by the Cabinet on Thursday.
Nepal’s minister of sports, Purushottam Poudel, stated that the board, who were led by Tarini Bikram Shah, were not doing enough to address the needs and requests of the national players.
“We were unhappy with the lack of a stable leadership,” Poudel told ESPNcricinfo. “Shah was not available at all times and such indecisiveness was not earning the confidence of the fans and cricket loving public, who were in turn putting pressure on the government to appoint an able leader. Binaya Raj Pandey is one of the founders of Nepal cricket, has previously been the president of CAN and is an able administrator, apart from also being an accomplished cricketer. Therefore, we felt that he is the right person to take Nepal cricket forward.
“The ICC and ACC are also keen to see Nepal cricket governed more competently and professionally.”
As of right now, the Cabinet have put together an ad hoc committee, which will be led by Binaya Raj Pandey.
While Pandey is still unclear about his duties as interim president, he noted that his short-term plan is to start encouraging more people to play cricket.
“CAN is currently Kathmandu oriented, but the game has grown a lot in the last couple of years and gained popularity in other parts of Nepal as well,” he said. “CAN needs to be decentralised with power being distributed to regional associations as well. It needs to be run less like an association and more like a board.”
Pandey also admitted that he knew it was only a matter of time before CAN was dissolved.
“There were 31 board members, of whom around 15 had no prior experience in cricket and had never been involved with the sport,” he said. “In such an atmosphere, there were numerous governance issues with CAN being unable to do justice to the development of cricket in the country.”
It is understood that only the members of the board have been sacked, while those with management and administration positions will be allowed to hold on to their posts.
“Everything has happened very quickly” the board’s CEO, Bhawana Ghimire, told ESPNcricinfo. “We are hearing of certain matters from news channels. We will have to wait to till tomorrow to have a clearer picture of things.”