No-confidence motion against Nepal board president

The members of Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) have filed a no-confidence motion against CAN president Tanka Angbuhang Limbu. The issue will now be discussed at a special convention, which will have to be convened within 45 days.

"More than 43 members of CAN's last convention have submitted a no-confidence motion against the president," CAN general secretary Ashok Nath Pyakuryal told ESPNcricinfo. "As per our constitution, a special convention will now have to be called and if the motion has to be passed, it will require two-third majority on the floor of the house."

As per the CAN rules, a no-confidence motion can be initiated against the president only if more than 25% of the members from the preceding general convention ask for a special convention to be called. Since the last general convention had 87 members, more than half of the members seem to have lost their confidence in the CAN chief.

The root cause of the members revolting against their president, it is believed, has been his decision to outsource the organisation of the Nepal Premier League (NPL), a 50-over and Twenty20 domestic tournament that was recently launched, to a private firm. When the members of the NPL governing council learned that the tournament had been allotted to Zohra Sports Management, all the CAN members on its governing council resigned - just two days prior to the 50-over tournament - and announced that the NPL will not be an official CAN event.

"On May 13, the president attended the inauguration ceremony and backed the event even after the members had disapproved it," Pyakuryal said. "That appears to have been the trigger for the motion to be passed against him."

It is believed by some in the Nepal cricket fraternity that the president has some sort of a deal with Zohra Sports Management. As a result, he had apparently decided to not make it mandatory for the firm to even submit the accounts of the tournament to CAN officials.

Limbu did not respond to ESPNcricinfo's attempts to reach him for a comment.

The 50-over-a-side leg of the NPL was played last week and the T20 leg is scheduled to be held next month. The turmoil in CAN had raised doubts over the T20 tournament.

Pyakuryal, however, assured all the stakeholders - especially the players - that the board will not disrupt any tournament. "CAN is all for all such tournaments that give more opportunity to the players. Even though the members are demanding transparency, it has been decided to not oppose any tournament or players' participation in it."

Nepal caught the cricketing world's attention by qualifying for the 2014 World T20. The team's head coach, Pubudu Dassanayake, hoped that the administrative issues are settled at the earliest, so that the game could continue to grow. "The players are quite confident that these issues won't harm them but still, such atmosphere is never good for a developing set-up like Nepal," Dassanayake, the former Sri Lanka wicketkeeper, said. "I just hope that these issues are addressed and resolved at the earliest since Nepal cricket finds itself at a critical juncture right now. Such issues being discussed among players is not really good for their morale."