ICC clears the one-year salary for Nepal national cricket team members

Nepali cricketers, who are under the central contract of the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN), had not received their pay for the past 16 months. In April last year, the board was suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC), after which the players did not receive their pay. The reason for their suspension was government interference.

The ICC has now cleared the pending payment of all the 23 cricketers, and have paid them according to their contracts. The Nepal board had categorised their players into three grades, the players with A contract were to receive Rs. 35,000 a month. Those with B contract were to receive an amount of Rs. 25,000 a month. And those who fall under the C category were to get Rs. 10,000. The ICC has cleared the payment according to this model set up by the CAN.

The ICC had earlier said that it will clear the salaries of the contracted players and had also issued a statement on that. “The ICC Board also agreed to a recommendation from the Development Committee to pay the outstanding salaries to national contracted players whilst the Cricket Association of Nepal is suspended and undergoing constitutional reform and reinstatement process,” ICC had said in a media release.

Nepal have played international cricket, but haven’t made a mark

In June 2014, Nepal was awarded the T20 international status by the ICC. Their first appearance in an ICC event was in the 2014 ICC T20 in Bangladesh but they have been playing international matches in 1996. The Nepal national cricket team has played all ACC trophy tournaments apart from the ACC T20 Cup in 2015.

They also played the ODI World Cup qualifier in 2001 and 2014, and the T20 World Cup qualifier in 2012, 2013 and 2015. However, they are yet to become a force to reckon with and the ICC doesn’t intend to lift the suspension as per reports.