An executive committee meeting of the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) approved Sri Lankan Pubudu Dasanayake for the post of national coach.
A technical committee led by CAN Vice-president Shree Harsha Koirala had earlier recommended the names of Dasanayake, another Sri Lankan cricketer Charith Senanayake and English cricketer of Pakistani origin Aftab Habib for the job.
“We decided to negotiate with Dasanayake,” CAN general secretary Tanka Paneru said. “CAN will pay him $ 5,000 per month as salary and provide accommodation. If he agrees to our terms and conditions, he will be appointed for initial period of six months.”
“If we fail to reach an agreement with Dasanayake, Aftab Habib is our second choice,” he added.
Meanwhile, CAN President Binaya Raj Pandey said that if they reached an agreement with Dasanayake, the latter would be in Kathmandu by the third week of September. “We are yet to take the approval of Asian Cricket Council (ACC) for appointing Dasanayake,” said Pandey.
Dasanayake, 41, had played 11 Test and 16 One-Day International matches for Sri Lanka and also played 108 first class matches. He was the coach of the Canadian national team for the last four years. Dasanayake, a former wicketkeeper batsman, was successful as Canada´s coach as the team qualified for the World Cup 2011 under his guidance. However, he has not renewed his contract with Canada.
CAN decides to postpone GA
Meanwhile, the meeting of CAN has decided to postpone its electoral general assembly for two months and send a copy of the decision to National Sports Council (NSC) for approval.
NSC has asked all the national associations run by ad-hoc executive committees to hold their electoral general assembly within August 26.
“NSC approved our statute only on August 8 and there is a public interest litigation against us in the court demanding election in CAN,” said Paneru.
“NSC has approved the statute that was drafted a decade ago, but people within CAN are demanding amendments to the statute. In this scenario, we are forced to postpone the electoral general assembly,” he added.
The meeting also decided to renovate the TU cricket ground within a year.
“We´ll build ladies´ toilet and expand viewers stand at the TU ground. We are utilizing the capital grant provided by the Asian Cricket Council as our share in the Asia Cup. We´ll invest around Rs 9 million for it,” said Paneru.