NEPALI CRICKET AND ITS DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES

NEPALI CRICKET: ACHIEVEMENT AND REQUIREMENTS

Nepal is a beautiful country situated in southeast corner of the world with a very little landmass about 0.01%. It has got historical as well as natural resources to make it familiar to the existing world. It has got roof as Mount Everest, messenger for peace as Gautam Buddha , variation in land marks and beautiful natural resources. This beautiful country is now making a remarkable success in sports such as cricket and football.

Fig:-Nepal vs Afghanistan(qualifier in TU) 

                                                          Cricket has been developing in Nepal in the recent years as a game of great hope and amusement. Now it is considered as very strong and unforgettable part of Nepalese sports. We can see gossips about the team in media, social networking sites and even in streets, which seems to be one of the great positive sign for the development of game. Despite of very little concern in economic aspects by the government, Nepalese cricket team in all level is making a good progress and showing their great effort in the game. Country national team is ranked as no 2 in in southern non test playing nation by Asian Cricket Council (ACC) in 2012. Below i listed some of the achievement of National team in all level of performance.

2007 Finalists, ACC Women’s Tournament

2007 Winners, ACC U-19 Elite Cup

2008 Plate Finalists, U/19 World Cup

2008 Third, ICC World Cricket League Division 5

2008 Winners, ACC U-19 Women’s Championship

2009 Winners, ACC U-17 Elite Cup

2009 Third, ACC Women’s Twenty20 Championship

2010 Winners, Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 5

2010 Finalists, ACC U-16 Elite Cup

2010 Finalists, ACC Trophy Elite

2010 Winners, ACC U-19 Women’s Championship

2011 Finalists, ACC U-19 Elite Cup

2012 Winners, ACC U-19 Women’s Championship

2012 Participants, ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier

2012 Finalists, ACC U-16 Elite Cup

2012    7^th out of 16 in ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier

First in ACC Rankings for 2009 and 2010 seasons

Second in ACC Rankings for 2007 and 2008 seasons

27th in ICC Global Rankings

Nepal is qualified for the first time in T20 world cup ICC qualifier (thankful to Hameed Sayed of Saudi Arab) and Nepalese team was thought to be the most weak team among the 16 team squad but the underestimated Nepali team gave a dead blow to those who thought them to be weak and a beautiful hope to well-wisher they ranked as no 7 at the end. Though team didn’t qualify for the T20 world cup, they really performed well and did awesome job in the league, they defeated world cup qualified team (13^th rank by ICC) Kenya and has been as the headline in the local paper of Kenya for a week. This is one of the biggest achievements of national side. This achievement gave a great impact on the world cricket. The country’s documentary was shown in ESPN which also gave the supporters and local investor a new hope for its development. some of the result of impact are, all-rounder Shakti Gauchan who took 15 wickets in ICC T20 qualifier was invited in the IPL training camp of the Rajasthan royals where he got a chance to play with world class cricketer such as Rahul Dravid, Brad Hodge ,Ajinkya Rahane,saun Tait the second achievement is unforgettable and given all Nepalese player a great hope for the commercialization of Nepalese cricket  . Skipper paras khadka was invited by Ontario cricket club and currently he is making a huge mark there. The players like Chandra Saud and Amrit Bhattarai invited to play from srilanka U-23 and Guinness book recorder Meheboob Alam to play from US based club in Hudson. The help from the Pubundu Dashanaika (coach from the Nepalese side) is really respectable.

                                                                                                This development in Nepali cricket is giving a great hope for the upcoming generation and also has been a powerful medium for uniting the country in this critical state as we have seen more than 10 thousand fans and supporter in Division 5 and world T20 Qualifier held in Nepal. This game gave a new sunshine for the Nepalese supporter and also somewhat grabbed the concentration of international cricket society.

PROBLEMS IN DEVELOPMENT OF CRICKET IN NEPAL

Fig:-Nepali cricket fans in TU ground

Nepal is a poor country and it is struggling for basic need of the people,  as a result government has to pay very little attention on sports so it allocated  relatively lower budget for the development of cricket but the prominent issue than this is corruption and inactiveness of represented body such as Cricket Association Of Nepal(CAN). Most of the allocated money is being corrupted till it reaches to lower level, or more precisely they don’t even give great importance to sports rather they feel their thirst, so one (government) is ruled out. Now just remains CAN which is thought to be one of the most passive sporting association by fans and critics in Nepal. They merely conduct national level game in a year, their job have been only to select the players but not to make them players or not even to encourage them to play. Most people say that the players selection process is also unfair and corrupted one, Such as a player with no cricketing brain but with good relation with selectors will get a chance rather than a good talented unrelated player. Despite of the great efforts from players and well-wisher Nepal didn’t have International Standard ground where international cricket can be played or about which ICC could have a concern so that to organize big game. I guess below listed points will give a great pace in the development of national cricket.

1. Nationwide awareness about cricket.

2. Fair and appreciable selection process leaving all sorts of corruption, blessing for relation etc.

3. Organizing national crickets of all level in all parts of country so as to bring young and talented youth in national squad.

4. Preparing the base level cricket such as U-16 stronger so as to make home production more powerful and also reduce the worry about the players in last hour or the academic development of cricket.

5. Graving the concentration from the corporates so that cricket can be commercialized and hence players can earn from it so as to facilitate their living.

6. Development of international level cricket ground so that international cricket can be organized such as UAE, Malaysia etc. is doing in the past years. These helps in promotion of Nepalese cricket and also help in awareness of people about cricket.

7. Friendly matches with associate nation, concern from CAN so that Nepalese players can play in premier league held in test playing nation such as India (IPL), Bangladesh (BPL), Pakistan (PPL) etc.

          Some hidden but bitter truth we guess existed in between Nepali players is leaving game due to different level of university exam they faced because of no provision of pre-pond and post-pond of it, which is making them to quit the career despite of their great talent and desire.

So these are some of most common and required issues for the betterment of future cricket in Nepal. I personally guess Iron Gate is already open for the Nepali cricket but what we need now is good and faithful soldiers to fight for their country side and make their nation proud so that it can be a relief for wound Nepalese are getting through immense violence and political instability. Best wishes all to Nepalese cricketer and the fans.

Well wisher