Fixing cricket

Rejecting allegations of match-fixing out of hand will further discredit the Cricket Association of Nepal.

The last thing the Nepal T20 League, the inaugural official franchise tournament of the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN), the country’s cricket governing body, needed was a match-fixing scandal. It came on Tuesday, 10 days into the tournament, threatening to jeopardise the league. It all began with Sachin Timalsena, an official commentator, announcing his dissociation with the league after he suspected suspicious activities in some matches. Among his doubts were a series of ‘no balls’ by experienced players and suspiciously poor performance of international players. Soon after, Gyanendra Malla, former captain of the men’s Nepali national cricket team, who is now the captain of the Kathmandu Knights, one of the six franchise teams in the league, claimed a teammate of his had been offered a match-fixing proposal.