David Richardson, the Chief Executive of the International Cricket Council (ICC), has written a formal letter to the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) on the recent decision to suspend the cricket governing body of Nepal.
In the letter to Chatur Bahadur Chand, the ‘elected committee’ President of CAN, dated 22 May 2016, Richardson pointed out reasons for suspension, the consequences of suspension and the conditions to be satisfied by CAN in order for the suspension to be lifted.
The ICC pointed out that CAN violated the Article 2.9 (a) by holding a disputed election and government (National Sports Council) interfering with CAN by forming an ad-hoc committee to control and administer CAN.
Until the suspension is lifted, the CAN will be deprived of all its rights as an ICC member that includes, but not limited to, no ICC funding, no representation in ICC meetings, and no rights to determine whether cricket matches and events stages in Nepal should have the status of approved or disapproved cricket. “Instead the ICC will make that determination,” the letter added.
“[] so that cricket players within Nepal do not suffer, the ICC Board has decided in its discretion that the Nepal national representative teams will not be denied any participation opportunities that would normally be offered to them during CAN’s suspension,” it added.
Conditions for lifting suspension
The CAN is ‘required to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the ICC Board, by reference of detailed and specific evidence, that the ICC’s concerns about the apparent failure to have CAN office-bearers elected by a free and fair election and government interference have been properly addressed, understood and remedied in full’.
This means that the ICC wants another CAN election which could be under the oversight of the ICC delegation, without NSC playing a interfering role.
The ICC delegation will travel to Nepal for assessment before October 2016. The delegation will provide further report to ICC Board in it’s meeting in October.
The ICC has also added a further condition for the reinstatement of membership. “CAN will be required to demonstrate again that it meets all the ICC’s Associate membership criteria, funding policy requirement and all other relevant rules and regulations,” the letter further states.
From suspension to the reinstatement, ‘the ICC will continue to oversee selection, management, operations and finances of Nepal’s national teams in accordance with the previously agreed arrangements’.