The Story of Binaya Raj Pandey

The simplicity of Binaya Raj Pandey matches cricket – the game of gentlemen. If compared, the relations between Pandey and cricket make a long list. Pandey is such a leader of cricket who drafted the first blueprint of Nepali cricket jokingly five decades ago. After traveling long road, he now plans the future of cricket seriously.

The never-tiring soldier has witnessed all phases of history of cricket – as a player, as a responsible administrator and as a serious analyst. At times, he asks himself how at 19 he created the ‘mood’ of becoming the general secretary of Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN). “At that time, cricket looked like disappearing in lack of a tournament organizing entity, thus Jai Kumar Nath Shah and I moved it forward as the president and general secretary,” he remembers.

Then, no body had thought cricket would leap so long becoming the main sports of Nepal. The truth is despite that Pandey never looked his position as a hobby. Despite focusing on the business he inherited, he always held to cricket.

His (and of Jai Kumar Nath Shah) affiliation to cricket is a historic as they are a few sports officials guiding a sports discipline for so long. Pandey, with his contribution and vision, has earned faith of international associations like ICC and ACC and was warmly welcomed when he was appointed the president of CAN.

Pandey is a pure businessman. His company is one of the biggest business agents of the country. He owns six businesses which work on interior designing, international supply and construction. He has responsibility of decorating the parliament house and had experience of decorating Ratriya Banigya Bank and Supreme Court among others.

But cricket moves along. In his office at Jamal, Kathmandu, a table displays the designs for the parliament while the parapet design of TU Cricket Ground is spread on the other. After completing talks with his agent, he could be found talking with ACC’s Sultan Rana. His office itself is ‘half-CAN’ with every information on cricket available.

How does he manage time? “My son Bipul is looking after business for three years now, and I am light,” he says. “I allocate separate time for cricket.”

Cricket too has benefited from his business knowledge and he weighs cricket as business. “In every institution, there are team, finance, requirement and production,” he adds. “If the product is flop, how can it run? If the players fail to perform how can cricket run?”

He then concludes –“that’s why it’s important to understand the requirement of players and then comes the need for sponsorship and finance.”

As soon as he was appointed the president, he successfully negotiated for two big sponsorships for domestic cricket. He believes attraction of cricket and his negotiation were the main reasons behind Surya Nepal and Standard Chartered Bank’s Rs. 4,000,000 sponsorship.

Pandey was a good player of badminton and had won Triple Crown in college championship at Tri Chandra College (singles, doubles and mixed doubles). In cricket, he was an alrounder – middle order batsman and medium pace bowler. As a team manager of national team, he took badminton teams to China and Japan. Now, golf has drawn his attention.

Very few know, he is the founder member of Nepal Olympic Committee. Later he was removed by Sarad Chandra Shah as cricket wasn’t an Olympic sport.

Pandey could never forget his tour to Tehran, Iran for the 1978 Asian Games. He accompanied the then member secretary of National Sports Council Khadga Bikram to Tehran where they reached by road via New Delhi, Islamabad and Kabul. “Can we reapt that?” he asks.

He is living a happy family life with his beloved Renu. He married a Newar girl after an affair. His daughter Bidhusi just married and son is looking after his business.

As the president of CAN, his aim for cricket is: “to play Asia Cup in 2008, to reach the World Cup qualifiers in 2011 and play the 2015 World Cup.”

BY NIRANJAN RAJBANSHI
Sports Editor
Nepal Samacharpatra daily