NSC, the apex sports body of the country, dissolved the controversially-elected CAN committee led by Chatur Bahadur Chand. The dissolved committee came into existence through an election held at midnight on December 14. However, the election was not recognized by the NSC.
CPN-UML lawmaker Rabindra Adhikari, NSC member Sailesh Karmacharya and former CAN member Deepak Saud are the vice presidents of the committee. Former CAN member Purna Lama has been named secretary of the newly-formed committee and Bharat KC is the treasurer. Hari Shankar Shah, Ritu Singh Baidhya, Diwakar Paudel, Nirwan Chaudhary, BIjayak Pokharel, Suresh Lal Shrestha, Ranjit Tamang and former skipper of the national team LB Chhetri are the members.
Newly-appointed President Silwal is also the former general secretary and vice president of the CAN. Silwal was the vice president in the Binay Raj Pandey-led committee dissolved by the then NSC Member Secretary Yubaraj Lama on November 2011. He was also named the general secretary of the CAN on November 6, 2014, after the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS) reshuffled the then committee. However, the Supreme Court annulled the decision of the MoYS following a writ petition filed by the elected committee.
NSC Member Secretary Keshav Kumar Bista, however, claimed that the vacant positions at the CAN were filled with new appointment rather than reshuffling the cricket governing body. “There were no office bearers in CAN despite the existence of the association. The term of previous committee led by Tanka Angbuhang had already expired. We also heard about the election CAN, but it was unauthorized,” Bista said. “Thus we had asked the CEO of CAN to run the day-to-day affairs of the cricket body. But office bearers are necessary to fulfill various procedures, thus we decided to fill the vacant positions.”
Bista also claimed that the newly-formed committee was formed by including all sides. “The committee is full of individuals having clean image and long contribution to cricket. The committee is entrusted to hold election within three months,” he added. “The new committee shall start the process of forming a Cricket Board. In case the committee fails to do the assigned task we shall reshuffle all district associations and hold a democratic election.”
Chand, the president of the dissolved committee, has challenged the NSC's decision in court. “We were expecting this and we shall not accept the government's interference,” Chand said.
Newly-appointed President Silwal said that the committee failed to include all stakeholders due to its small structure and they shall try to make it inclusive.
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