Nepal: Women to receive inaugural central contracts, all cricketers to be insured

The board meeting of the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) held on Tuesday, with women’s national players on central contracts for the first time.

While the system has broken new ground in the country, the stipend for women is much lower than that of contracted men’s players. The 19 contracts will be offered across three categories, with corresponding monthly payments of US$128 (Category A), $102 (Category B), and $85 (Category C).

On the men’s side, 18 players will be under CAN central contracts in 2020. The A grade players will receive a monthly stipend of $426 (232% more than the correlating women’s contract), those in B will receive $383 (374%) and cricketers from C category will receive $255 (200%).

Sita Rana Magar, the vice-captain of the Nepali women’s team, was pleased for the announcement of central contracts but was not satisfied with the amount they will receive nor the grading system of the women’s contracts.

“I am happy that the contract systems have been initiated for women cricketers as well but how would this amount secure the lives of women cricketers? At least they [CAN] should have considered our living expenses with some scientific grading system”, Sita told Emerging Cricket.

Women’s contracted players:

Grade A: Rubina Chhetri, Neri Thapa, Indu Verma, Sita Rana Magar, Karuna Bhandari
Grade B: Jyoti Pandey, Apsari Begum, Roma Thapa, Bindu Rawal, Kabita Joshi, Ritu Kanojia, Kajal Shrestha, Sarita Magar
Grade C: Kabita Kunwar, Dolly Bhatta, Anuradha Chaudhary, Sonu Khadka, Anjali Chand, Sobha Ale

Men’s contracted players:
Grade A: Paras Khadka, Gyanendra Malla, Sandeep Lamichhane, Sharad Veshawkar, Karan KC, Basanta Regmi, Dipendra Singh Airee, Binod Bhandari.
Grade B: Susan Bhari, Sompal Kami, Aarif Sheikh, and Pawan Sarraf.
Grade C: Subash Khakurel, Rohit Kumar Paudel, Kushal Malla, Rashid Khan, Avinash Bohra, and Kamal Singh Airee

The two men’s players who were not under the central contracts last year, Subash Khakurel and Kamal Singh Airee have been included this time while Ishan Pandey, Lalit Rajbanshi, Pradip Airee, Raju Rijal, Kushal Bhurtel, Sandeep Jora have been excluded.

CAN has also planned to insure all players and staff. For this, CAN has formed a committee that will submit a report within a week. Lalit Bhandari, who had been hospitalised after a motorbike accident is now in a stable condition. CAN has shown a commitment to coordinate with his family members and other stakeholders for his treatment.

The board has announced they will hold the annual general meeting on October 14.

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