Cricket
CAN urged to rethink punishment against cricketers
Malla, Airee and two others have been subjected to various actions for acting in breach of players’ code of conduct.Sports Bureau
Four national cricket team members including captain Gyanendra Malla and vice captain Dipendra Singh Airee, punished by Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) for violating the code of conduct, have urged the cricket governing body to rethink about the action taken against them.
Along with captain Malla and Airee, bowler Sompal Kami and Kamal Singh Airee have expressed dissatisfaction over the players’ grading and central contract of national cricketers in an interview.
CAN had formed a probe committee to look into the incident and as per the suggestion of the committee, the cricket governing body had stripped captain Malla and vice captain Airee of their roles on Wednesday. In addition to that, CAN had announced not to offer a central contract (salary) to four players for six months from January 2022.
Star leg spinner Sandeep Lamichhane has been appointed captain of the national team.
“We were punished for asking CAN to offer central contracts to all national players,” captain Malla said at a joint press conference organised by the four players. “We want this issue to be solved through discussion and urge CAN to rethink the punishment imposed on us.”
The probe committee of CAN had sought clarification from the players regarding the issues and the committee claimed that the four players submitted a memorandum instead of clarification.
“We submitted a memorandum at CAN and I took the lead in the move in the capacity of the national team captain,” said Malla.
The cricket governing body has announced to start national team’s closed camp training from December 21 in Pokhara. When asked if they would join the closed camp in the current situation, Malla said, “We want the issue to be solved at the earliest.”