All other members of the 17-member committee were also elected unopposed in the first-ever election of CAN in its six-decade history. [break]
TB Shah was elected first vice-president, Sriniwas Rana and Chatur Bahadur Chand were elected vice-presidents and Ashok Nath Pyakurel was elected general secretary.
Ratan Kathayat, Anup Thapa, Shailesh Chaudhary, Uttam Karmacharya, Dhirendra Saud, Kiran Rana, Binod Mainali, Raju Babu Shrestha, Basant Raj Satyal, Naresh Shrestha, Ameet Bir Pandey, and Sanjay Singh were also elected unopposed.
Angbuhang´s only opponent former national captain Pawan Agrawal withdrew late Sunday night.
"Election of the committee unopposed sends across a positive message and I thank all the candidates who withdrew," Angbuhang said. "I shall go ahead taking suggestions from all of them."
"I am speechless," Agrawal said after withdrawing his candidacy who refused to comment.
Current vice-presidents Upendra Bhattarai and TB Shah were all set to vie for the post of first vice-president but Bhattarai pulled out of the contest. Four candidates for the posts of members, Naresh Rana, Niranjan Pratap Rijal, Jayanti Bhatta and Ratna Hari Pradhananga, also pulled out.
Emotional Bhattarai remarked that he had no desire to get involved in dirty politics. "I have always respected three persons -- Jay Kumar Nath Shah, Binay Raj Pandeny and TB Shah -- in Nepali cricket and I don´t wish to edge the only remaining person (Shah) from cricket," he said.
According to the CAN statute, the general assembly elects a president, a first vice president, two vice presidents, a general secretary and 12 members while others in 31-member committee are nominated either by the elected president or the board.
After his election, Angbuhang said that his immediate priorities would be to prepare for the T20 World Cup Qualifiers, convert monthly allowance of player as central contract from CAN and increase the fund of the Cricketers Welfare Fund.
Angbuhang said his long-term plans include infrastructure development, building national cricket academy, turn Mulpani ground into an international venue and expanding cricket across the country.
Amendments on statute
The general assembly also voted for a couple of amendments to the statute.
After the amendments, there will be seven vice presidents in a 31-member CAN committee. Earlier, the statute had the provision of only five vice presidents.
Likewise, there will be two secretaries in the committee. Earlier, there was provision of only one secretary.
"The general assembly made those amendments after kingpins within the ad-hoc committees involved in the bargaining of the posts," claimed a source.
Paneru barred
Former general secretary Tanka Paneru warned of legal action after the ad-hoc committee of the CAN barred him from participating in the general assembly.
The last meeting of the ad-hoc committee held in Chitwan before the general assembly took the decision to not approve Paneru´s representation from Jhapa District Committee. Paneru was considering candidacy for presidency.
General secretary Ashok Nath Pyakurel handed a letter to Paneru about rejection of his representation stating that his representation was against the CAN statute. Paneru could not represent Jhapa district as he is not a member of Jhapa District Committee.
"Our statute says that representatives from district associations and regional associations participate in the general assembly but Paneru is not in district committee," said Pyakurel.
On the other side, Paneru said that it was the last step of current leadership to capture CAN. "One after another, they are performing irregularities and this is the last step," said Paneru.
Paneru claimed that the CAN statute does not bar him from representing Jhapa. "The statute says representatives of district committee will be voters for the general assembly. It does not demand representatives from within the committee itself," said Paneru.
Jhapa District Committee had taken a decision to send Paneru in the general assembly on December 14.
Paneru said that he would soon take legal step and wait for opportune moment for taking political steps. "I´ve already informed ICC and ACC that the political move taken by the current leadership will invite political interventions," said Paneru, who is a cadre of CPN-UML.
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