The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has decided to honor Binaya Raj Pandey, the president of Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN), with the ACC Lifetime Service Award under the Pepsi ICC Development Programme Awards 2010.
With the regional award, ACC has nominated Pandey for the ICC Lifetime Achievement Award which will be announced on February 28 in Dubai from among the regional winners of five ICC Development Regions.
This is the second time, a Nepali has been honored with the award. Jai Kumar Nath Shah won the award in 2003 and he went to win the ICC Global Award for the Lifetime Service.
“This is an honor to Nepali cricket, I am only an actor,” Pandey said. “This honor is for the country.”
Pandey also said that ACC evaluated his honesty for cricket. “This is a big honor for me, for my honesty for developing cricket in Nepal.”
Pandey is associated with CAN for four decades now. He is serving as the president for three years now after serving it as the general secretary for more than three decades.
During ICC’s Centenary Year celebration in 2009, Pandey and four other cricket officials received the ICC Centenary Award.
Along with Pandey, Nepal also received ACC award for Best Junior Cricket Initiative while Malaysia won three regional awards for Best Cricket Promotion and Marketing Program, Photo of the Year and Volunteer of the Year for Mohammad Sham Bin Jalil.
ACC Best Photo of the Year 2010. Photo Courtesy: Asian Cricket Council
Qatar and Bhutan won regional awards for the best Overall Cricket Development Program and the best Women’s Cricket Initiative respectively.
Last time Nepal won the regional award was in 2007 when Sudarshan Ranjit won the Best Photo Award and CAN won the Best Junior Cricket Initiative Award. In 2006, Nepal’s Region no 5 Nepalgunj won the Best Women’s Cricket Initiative Award that later also won the ICC Global Award.
In 2003, along with Shah, Nepal won the Best Cricket Promotion and Marketing Program Award.
The Pepsi ICC Development Programme Awards, now in its ninth year, recognizes and rewards the efforts of Associations and individuals who promote cricket in their countries.
“It was difficult to select the Asian winners this year since there were so many to choose from. There was very close competition but we really do appreciate the entries and I would like to wish all Associations the very best as they go forward into the global reckoning,” said ACC Development Manager Bandula Warnapura in the official website of the ACC.