The International Cricket Council has announced that it wants to form an advisory group in Nepal to plot a roadmap to welcome the country’s association, suspended five months ago, back to the world governing body. ICC’s CEO David Richardson arrived in Kathmandu on Saturday, and on Sunday held talks with various stakeholders of cricket in Nepal.

According to sources, Richardson, accompanied by Chairman of Associates Imran Khwaja and finance manager Ammar Sheikh, was all set to announce the names of the people who were to be on the new advisory committee that would review CAN’s charter and pave the way for fresh elections. But as talks with the Chand group failed, Richardson withheld the names, and said they would be announced within two weeks. 

Sources tell Onlinekhabar that the ICC insisted that former CAN President Binay Raj Pandey also be made a member of the committee, and this did not go down well with the ‘elected’ CAN (led by Chatur Bahadur Chand). Similarly the ‘elected’ CAN has demanded more seats in the committee than the ICC offered. The Chand group is also averse to having players’ association representatives on the committee.

 

Here are three ways events could unfold in the days to come:

1.

ICC gives in to ‘elected’ CAN’s demands

Although members of the ‘elected’ CAN have been telling the media that the deal between the government and the ICC raises ‘legal’ and ‘ethical’ issues, the reality is that they are more worried about conceding ground to the rival groups (the ‘ad-hoc’ CAN and Pandey). The ‘elected’ CAN say they have the mandate of the associations (AGM), and they should get more seats on the to-be-formed committee than that of the ‘ad-hoc’ committee. They are using this as a bargaining chip against the ICC, and the ICC is likely to give in to their demand, either partially or fully. If that happens, a committee will be formed before the two-week timeframe set by Richardson.

 

2.

ICC decides to exclude ‘elected’ CAN from the process

The second possibility is that the ICC does not listen to the ‘elected’ CAN and goes ahead with its plan to form the advisory committee, without support from the ‘elected’  group. The group will come under pressure, and it will either disown the committee, or put forward a new set of demands. This remains a remote possibility, as the ‘elected’ group also knows that a cricket board in Nepal cannot run without support from the ICC as it directly funds the game in Nepal.

3.

Court passes verdict on the dispute

The third possibility, which cannot be ruled out yet, involves the court passing a verdict on the CAN dispute. There is a possibility that one of the parties wins the case, but the ICC (although it says it will abide by the verdict) may not own the court decision. The process will get entangled and a solution will become difficult to get to.

 

At the end of the day, everyone in Nepal knows that any cricket body in Nepal would need the support of the ICC to carry out the smallest of its activities. They also know that time is running out for the Gentleman’s Game in Nepal, and that immediate lifting of the suspension is what is required.