Nepal T20 League was a fiasco

 

 

The recently concluded controversy-laced inaugural franchise based Nepal T20 cricket league  tournament held in Kathmandu was a huge relief to the Cricket Association of Nepal.

The tarnished tournament barely made it to the finish line with  victory for Lumbini All Stars over Biratnagar Super Kings in the final.

Cricket Association of Nepal(CAN),the organizer had  hoped for a resounding success of the competition.

Contrary to expectations, it turned out to be  a downright disaster. As a matter of fact, the debacle was the cricket body’s own making.They have become the butt of a joke.

After much speculation,suspense,drama and postponements the tournament designed to rival the Everest Premier League  finally kicked off.

The  competition started and concluded amidst controversies and scandals.It totally failed to fire up spectator  interest and matches were marked by shockingly low turnout .

As news of spot - fixing,match-fixing, organizers fleeing the country,non-payment  to players and broadcasters,players refusing to play without getting paid and  some international players returning back home early surfaced, chaos reigned  and the tournament was on the verge of going bust. 

To make matters worse,the Central Investigation Bureau(CIB) launched an investigation into allegations of match-fixing at the Ministry of Home Affairs' behest. 

Cricket  aficionados across the country rightly and quickly questioned the validity of the competition and criticized CAN for its gross incompetence.

Evidently the competition was  organized in the most  shocking,unprofessional and egregious manner.The cricket body was guilty of mishandling the proceedings from start to finish.

Furthermore,they knowingly violated  the law of the land by allowing overseas players to play in the tournament without a work permit.

It speaks volumes about the cricket association’s absolute mismanagement, ineptness, negligence, arrogance,lack of preparation and  foresight,coupled with poor planning.

Even before the tournament started,the much publicized and hyped  event was roiled in controversies.

 CAN faced a firestorm of criticism over their decision to  not accord its approval  to the private sector to conduct their own franchise based T20 tournament.

It was a dumb, stupid decision that was outrageous,unacceptable and unreasonable. Expectedly it backfired almost immediately.

In response,the  organizer and six teams of the Everest Premier League(EPL),the first  and the biggest franchise based T20 league in the country in no time filed a writ petition  at Supreme Court against CAN.

Despite  red flags raised about Seven3Sports, CAN,unheeding, went ahead and forged the controversial partnership.

As per the latest report,CBI in its investigation concluded that there was match-fixing and spot-fixing.And two players have been nabbed by the police in this regard.

 The government must hold CAN liable for failing in their responsibilities and bypassing the work permit requirement for foreign players.

Clearly, there is an accountability problem in CAN.We cannot  continue to allow such incompetent officials to run  the show.If not , Nepal cricket will suffer, stagnate and go nowhere.

There is no accountability and transparency in the functioning of  present office bearers. They have turned the cricket body into one big joke.

For decades bad  governance, weak leadership, petty politics, factionalism, paucity of funds, lack of infrastructure and facilities have plagued Nepal cricket.

Unless there are meaningful  changes at CAN in terms of leadership, executives and management,things won’t change.