Nepali former national cricket captain Sandeep Lamichhane (center) is escorted by police coming out from Kathmandu districtl court after he released on bail, who has been in custody for three months on rape charges in Kathmandu on January 13, 2023. Photo: AFP

Nepal's cricket board lifted the suspension of its top player on Wednesday even as the Himalayan republic's top law officer sought to have him sent back to custody on rape charges.

Sandeep Lamichhane is accused of raping a 17-year-old girl in a Kathmandu hotel room in August 2022, but was released on bail in January.

Cricket Association of Nepal president Chatur Bahadur Chand told AFP that the board decided to allow the 22-year-old to return to the field.

"The board had taken disciplinary action against him and suspended him. The new decision to lift the suspension will allow him to play games," Chand told AFP.

Nepal's attorney general had a day earlier filed an appeal seeking Lamichhane's return to custody because the decision to release him on bail was "flawed," office spokesperson Sanjiv Raj Regmi told AFP.

"We have asked the Supreme Court to overturn the high court's decision," Regmi said. 

Lamichhane is a star spin-bowler and was the poster boy for cricket's rising profile in mountainous Nepal, which gained one-day international status in 2018.

AFP