Dear Mr. Angbuhang,
Congratulations for becoming the first elected president of Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN).
This is indeed a great moment for you for at least two reasons. First, you completed the mandate given to you as the interim president of CAN within the stipulated time. Second, despite having no relation with cricket until a few months ago, the people who have devoted their lives in cricket elected you unopposed.
We, the Nepali cricket fans, are looking at you with optimism because past presidents, despite having long engagements with cricket, failed to deliver contrary to our expectations. They even didn´t fulfill all their promises. So, we believe, maybe a man with political ambition is capable of taking Nepali cricket to new heights.
In your post-election interviews, you have outlined over half-a-dozen priorities that you would like to accomplish during your four-year tenure. We hope you are serious about the promises you made. To remind you, and us as well, of your promises, we are putting them here in a list under bullet points:
- Development of grounds in Mulpani in Kathmandu and Pokhara
- Expansion of cricket in all 75 districts of Nepal
- Establishment of National Cricket Academy
- Establishment of Nepal as neutral venue for international cricket
- Central contract to cricketers based on grading/performance
- Restructuring of domestic cricket structure
- Conversion of CAN as autonomous cricket board
More than half of those things wouldn´t have been promised, had you seriously consulted your deputies before telling them to the media. That is because they are not easy promises.
Some of them like development of grounds in Mulpani and Pokhara have already started and you can extract more budget from the government because of your political background (of course, we all know you are also the central committee member of the country´s largest political party which is also leading the government). But it will take a lot of hard work and strategizing to turn them into world class grounds for holding international matches as neutral venues.
The expansion of the sport in 75 districts is also not easy (unless you decide only to form district committees). Similarly, national cricket academy, players´ contract and restructuring of domestic cricket are challenging tasks. They call for proper planning and lot of work (apart from political links) to be completed.
We are not discouraging you but only reminding you that they are challenging tasks requiring lot of hard work. We sincerely hope that you and your committee are able to put up the hard work, complete those tasks, and uplift Nepali cricket to the height it long deserved.
We will be writing to you again next year, and subsequent years, evaluating your promises. We wish to be able to clap for you in those years. We are also afraid we may have to use angry words for you because we have seen political leaders, who have made big promises and forgotten them all (including all those tall figures in your party as well).
We wish you all the success and luck. We also assure you of our complete support for any good work. But we are also keeping an eye on what you´re doing.
Yours truly
Nepali Cricket Fan
(As published in Republica national daily)