International Cricket Council (ICC) has ultimately slapped a fine of $ 84000 (approx Rs 8.3 million) on Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) for not submitting quarterly financial reports.
ICC had warned Nepal of action in August after the association failed to submit financial reports for the last quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013 on time.
CAN had sent the financial report for the last quarter of 2012 in May whereas it should have been submitted by the end of January. Asian Cricket Council (ACC) had asked ICC to take action against Nepal.
CAN had appealed to ICC and ACC not to take action but they did not respond to the plea.
CAN Vice-president Keshav Ghimire confirmed the report and said that it was a setback for the Nepali cricket.
“Primarily, it´s the duty of general secretary to take care of office duties. We had asked him even during the general assembly to submit reports on time and to lobby for avoiding possible action,” said Ghimire. “Our president had also asked him to go to ICC and ACC headquarters to solve the problem. However, he was reluctant,” alleged Ghimire.
CAN General Secretary Ashok Nath Pyakuryal could not be reached for comments despite several phone calls.
ICC provides $160,000 for administrative expenses and $175,000 annually for capital and development expenditure to CAN. As ICC stood by the decision, it has deducted the amount from its regular financial assistance.
Earlier, ICC had decided to fine CAN 10 percent of the capital and development fund in 2012 for the same reason but it had withdrawn the decision after an appeal by CAN. ACC had then sent its representative to Kathmandu to train CAN officials to prepare the reports.
CAN President Tanka Angbuhang only said that he was busy in his election campaign in Taplejung. Angbuhang is a UCPN (Maoist) candidate for Taplejung-2.
Earlier in August, Angbuhang had claimed that the letter from ICC to CAN about “possible action” was sent because of communication error. “They opened our email on the financial report only after two months and they have already admitted their mistake,” Angbuhang had claimed. He, had also claimed that ICC had agreed to remove Nepal from the list of countries not submitting financial reports on time.
(Source: REPUBLICA)