ICC Centenary Award for CAN officials

KATHMANDU, June 30: Five officials of the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) have been conferred the ICC Centenary Award. The CAN officials were honored by the ICC (International Cricket Council) on the occasion of 100 years of ICC´s establishment, as per a decision to felicitate cricket officials of different countries. [break]



CAN president Binay Raj Pandey, Tarini Bikram Shah, Shashi Dutta Pandey, Naresh Shrestha and vice president Upendra Bhattarai are the ones honored by the ICC Centenary Award. As per the ICC decision to felicitate volunteers who have been working for the development of cricket, CAN had nominated the five officials and all the nominations were approved by the ICC.



CAN president Pandey receive the award on behalf of the Nepali awardees at the ICC meeting held in London this week. “The ICC has asked us to distribute this award in our own country, and we will do so amidst a function,” Pandey, who returned to Nepal Sunday after attending the ICC meeting, said.



Those honored will be handed the medals given by ICC, Pandey further informed. ICC has honored 1,000 cricket volunteers from across the globe.



Media Center



CAN is set to open a media center at the TU Cricket Ground, Kirtipur for the upcoming Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division-5 to be held in January. This is the first time that Nepal is to host the ICC Tournament. ICC Development Events Manager Andrew Fincharri and Development Manager Bandula Barnapura are arriving in Kathmandu in the third week of July.



ICC and the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) have given word they will provide about $300,000 after CAN urged them to support the development of sports physical infrastructure here.



The Division-5 matches will most probably be held at TU, the Birendra Sainik Bhaktapur Cricket Ground and Pulchowk Engineering Ground, informed CAN president Pandey. “Before the inspection team arrives, Nepal needs to prepare and forward a draft of the budget required for hosting the ICC tournament,” added Pandey.



Women cricketers to participate in World T20 qualifiers



A Nepali women´s team will be participating in the 2012 Women´s World T20 qualifiers. “It would be tough to display good performance at that level organizing only one tournament a year and we are trying to make women´s cricket our base,” CAN president Pandey said. “We will be organizing women´s school cricket from next year. Nepal´s ranking will also rise if women cricketers come up with good performances,” Pandey added.



Pandey also informed that it was not certain whether or not the top three teams of the ACC Women´s T20 to be held from next week will qualify for the Asiad.

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