Nepali U-19 cricket team in Sri Lanka

January 17, 2006
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The U-19 cricket team before departure. Photo courtesy: cricket.com.np

The U-19 cricket team before departure. Photo courtesy: cricket.com.np
The Nepali U-19 team recently departed for Colombo, Sri Lanka for a 15 day training and participation in the Under-19 Youth World Cup with the hopes of reaching the Super League stage.

The team will train in Colombo for 15 days to acclimatize. Nepal’s participation in the U-19 World Cup is fourth in a row after winning the U-19 ACC Trophy recently held in Kathmandu. Nepal is grouped with cricket powerhouses England, Zimbabwe and European qualifier Ireland in Group D of the tournament. Top two teams from each group qualifies for the Super League.

“I would like to come back on a higher note,” inspirational coach Roy Dias, a former Sri Lankan cricketer, said before departure. “If we make it to the Super League, it would be a great achievement,” he added.

Nepal played in the U-19 Youth World Cup for the first time in 2000 in Sri Lanka and surprised the world by defeating Kenya to reach the Super League ahead of South Africa. In 2002, Nepal defeated Pakistan and Bangladesh en route to Plate Final where it lost to Zimbabwe. South Africa became the victim of Nepal in 2004 where Nepal exited from the Plate League.

Nepal is playing Namibia on February 2 and Scotland on February 3 in official practice matches before taking on England on February 6. Zimbabwe will face Nepal the next day while the match against Ireland is scheduled for February 9.

The Cricket Association of Nepal recently organized a farewell program for the team. National Sports Council member-secretary Kishore Bahadur Singh, president Jai Kumar Nath Shah, vice-president Sri Niwas Rana, secretary Laxman Bastola, treasurer Pradip Karki and other CAN members were present on the program.

The Nepali squad is as follows:

Kanishka Chaugai (captain)
Paras Khadka (vice-captain)
Yashwant Subedi
Prem Chaudhary
Sharad Vesawkar
Gyanendra Malla
Mahesh Chhetri (wicket-keeper)
Basant Regmi
Ratan Rauniyar
Sashi Keshari
Raj Shrestha
Abhaya Rana
Bantu Bataju
Amrit Bhattarai
Roy Dias (coach)
Shankar Rana (assistant coach)
TB Shah (manager)
Diwakar Ghale (assistant manager)