Nepali national cricket team embarked ‘a very very important’ tour today with the hopes of securing the last remaining place in the World Cup 2007 qualifiers, the ICC Trophy 2005.
The squad, led by Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) vice-president Srinivas Rana, will first go to Colombo of Sri Lanka via Doha of Qatar for a preparation camp before flying to Kuala Lumpur of Malaysia to play the eight-team World Cup Qualiyfing Series (WCQS) Division II. The winner of the event qualifies to the 12-team ICC Trophy from which top five team will qualify to play the World Cup in West Indies.
“We can’t afford to relax as this is a very very important tour,†CAN president Jai Kumar Nath Shah said after bidding farewell to the team in a program. National Sports Council’s member secretary Kishore Bahadur Singh and officials of CAN were present on the occasion.
“This is a very tough tour,†coach Roy Dias said. Dias rated Kuwait tough among first round competitors of Nepal adding that Papua New Guinea and Italy were unevaluated. Nepal will play PNG on Feb 21 and Kuwait on Feb 22 before taking on Italy on Feb 23.
For the event, Nepal appointed new captain, Binod Das who had led the under-19 teams in two Youth World Cup, and recalled allrounder Mehboob Alam and batsman Dipendra Chaudhary. Wicket-keeper Manoj Katuwal was dropped in favor of Manoj Vaishya while injured seamer Manjeet Shrestha was replaced by Dhirendra Chand.