Sports
Nepal court finds former cricket captain Sandeep Lamichhane guilty of rape
A court in Nepal has found the country’s highest profile cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane guilty of raping an 18-year-old woman and has fixed January 10 for his sentencing.
The judgement was announced after a repeatedly delayed trial that had left him free to continue his sporting career.
The 23-year-old has been the face of cricket in Nepal and was the only player from the country to take part in prominent Twenty20 leagues across the world.
He was suspended as Nepal’s captain last year and taken into custody after police issued an arrest warrant for him over the assault in 2022. He was later released on bail. Lamichhane could face up to 10 years in jail. His lawyers said he would appeal the verdict to a higher court.
“We did not expect this judgement, we are frustrated,” lawyer Sabita Bhandari Baral told the Reuters news agency about Friday’s verdict by the Kathmandu District Court. “We’ll definitely appeal,” she said.
District Court official Ramu Sharma confirmed the verdict to the AFP news agency. “The event was not consensual,” he said.
The former captain’s on-field success has boosted the sport’s profile in the Himalayan nation over the past few years.
When authorities issued an arrest warrant, Lamichhane initially failed to return from Jamaica, where he was playing in the Caribbean Premier League. He was dismissed as national captain and arrested last year, but Nepal lifted his playing ban after he was freed on bail. This allowed him to remain in the national team, including for the World Cup qualifiers and September’s Asia Cup.
Lamichhane has consistently denied the charge against him and enjoyed strong public support despite the accusations. Hundreds of cheering cricket fans welcomed him when he returned to the field in February.
But his continued playing career has also sparked anger and caused numerous Nepalis to disavow the team.
Scotland’s cricketers refused to shake hands with him after their matches during an international tournament in Dubai.
The case took more than a year to conclude after repeated delays on procedural grounds.
Cricket has been growing in popularity in Nepal and the country was given one-day international status by the world governing body in 2018.
Lamichhane has been a major part of this rise as the most sought-after Nepali cricketer in lucrative leagues around the world. The leg spinner’s big break came when he was snapped up for the lucrative Indian Premier League, the world’s richest cricket tournament, in 2018.
(Aljazeera)
It’s taking longer than most expected, but Bangladesh are inevitably moving towards history. Bangladesh and Pakistan will go into a fifth day in Sylhet, with Bangladesh on the cusp of another 2-0 clean sweep of Pakistan. They need just three wickets to get there, with Mohammed Rizwan, unbeaten on 75, the final, valiant point of resistance for a visiting side who still need an improbable 121 for victory.
It was thanks primarily to Rizwan, and his 134-run partnership with Salman Agha in the final session, that kept Bangladesh waiting for so long when they appeared to be on course to finish Pakistan off. But two crucial wickets from Taijul Islam – who bowled more than a third of the overs on Tuesday – in the final half hour saw that partnership broken, and the hosts burrow deep into Pakistan’s tail.
Rizwan and Agha got together off the back of three quick wickets, and a resurgent Bangladesh sniffing for a quick knockout. Instead, they held them at bay for over three hours, counterattacking early on before seeing off wave after wave of spin and seam from Bangladesh. Even as Bangladesh attacked with the field, the duo kept run-scoring front and centre of their survival strategy, using their feet against spin and timing the ball expertly when pace returned.
That the stand had begun to frustrate Bangladesh became evident when tempers flared in the final hour, with Litton Das taking exception to Rizwan slowing play down after disturbances from the sightscreen. The contest took on a distinct edge, but the Pakistan pair did not lose focus, inching their way towards stumps.
No more wickets might have given Bangladesh a sleepless night, but Taijul put them at ease. With Nahid Rana operating with a new ball from the other end, Taijul produced an arm delivery that skidded through Agha’s defences and knocked back his stumps, prompting wild celebrations from the hosts, who understood the importance of the moment. Hasan Ali, whom Rizwan curiously decided against shielding from the strike, posed little resistance, leaving Bangladesh just three wickets adrift.
Brief scores:
Pakistan 232 and 316 for 7 (Shan Masood 71, Babar Azam 47, Salman Agha 71, Mohammad Rizwan 75*; Taijul Islam 4-113, Nahid Rana 2-58) need another 121 runs to beat Bangladesh 278 and 390
[Cricinfo]
Sri Lanka Cricket’s new transformation committee has had “cordial and constructive” discussions with Imran Khwaja, the ICC’s deputy chair, according to a member of the new SLC committee.
Khwaja had been in Ari Lanka over the last few days to gather information as the ICC decides what its response to the sweeping government-led changes at SLC should be. During the course of that visit, Khwaja not only spoke with members of SLC’s transformation committee, but also met with Sri Lanka’s president Anura Kumara Dissanayake, whose government had installed the committee after ousting the previous board.
Sidath Wettimuny one of the committee’s nine members, said SLC’s new administrators were hopeful the ICC would continue to treat the board as a regular Full Member.
But the ICC has a track record of reprimanding SLC because of perceived government interference. In 2023, SLC was suspended over “extensive government interference” and, in 2015, the ICC had also frozen payments over a previous “interim committee” having been appointed by the then government.
This current committee, however, has said its goals were to replace SLC’s archaic constitution, before making way for a new set of elected officials.
The ICC has so far made no comments on the change of administration at SLC.
The committee, formally unveiled on April 30, has nine members, including Kumar Sangakkara, Wettimuny and Roshan Mahanama. The majority of the members, though, hail from corporate, legal, and political spheres, with former member of parliament Eran Wickramaratne appointed as chair.
“Our immediate priority is a total overhaul of the governance framework at SLC,” Wettimuny had said after the committee members were named. “The cornerstone of this effort will be the implementation of the new constitution, ensuring it serves as a robust, modern foundation for the sport.”
The committee’s second priority would be to ensure “excellence on the field,” Wickramaratne had said. “We will focus on establishing the structures, world-class facilities, and incentive models necessary to empower our national teams. Our goal is to enable our players to consistently deliver world-class performances and elevate Sri Lanka back to the top tier of international rankings.”
[Cricinfo]
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