For next two weeks, Gyanendra Malla faces an unprecedented task of his cricketing career that, if he succeeds, will establish him as a hero of Nepali cricket.
But for the U-19 captain, the failure in the upcoming ACC U-19 Elite Cup means the inability to keep up what his preceding captains did to establish the nation as the strongest associate cricket playing team in the world map.
Gyanendra, a regular to senior team as a middle-order batsman and also a part-time bowler, is leading the national side for second time and says his team will do their best to continue the legacy.
“Of course, there is pressure to perform well,” he said on the eve of departure to Kuwait for the competition, “but we are prepared well to cope with that pressure.”
“As a member of earlier U-19 teams, I know how important it’s to win the event and then to qualify for the Youth World Cup,” he added, “and we are committed to perform our best.”
Nepal had won the Asian U-19 four times before – in 2001 under captaincy of Binod Das, in 2003 under Shakti Gauchan, in 2005 under Kanishka Chaugai and in 2007 under Paras Khadka. Apart from the last time when it beat Afghanistan to lift the trophy, Nepal beat Malaysia in all other finals.
For years, the Asian U-19 was the qualifier for the Youth World Cup and Nepal played the big event five times, in 1999 as runners-up to Bangladesh and in 2002 (plate finalist), 2004, 2006 (plate winner) and 2008 (plate finalist).
This time, however, the finalists of the event will only qualify for the 10-nation qualifier to the Youth World Cup 2010 which will be played between top two teams from each of the cricketing regions – Asia, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Americas and Africa.
Coach Roy Dias believed that the team is a balanced one. “I am taking a balanced side, but since all other team wants to beat Nepal, it’s a bit pressure on it,” he said. “I have a few experienced players and overall, I have a good time.”
Dias says Nepal is in a tough group. “Malaysia has played in last World Cup and a lot of players from that team are in the team; Singapore and Hong Kong are also good.”
On Sunday, Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) organized a farewell program where National Sports Council (NSC) vice-president Sitaram Maskey termed cricket as the ‘pride of the country’ and asked the players to remember that they are playing for making the nation proud when they enter the ground.
“Result is a part of the game,” CAN president Binaya Raj Pandey told the team during the function. “What we want to see is commitment from you and I am convinced that with commitment you will certainly repeat the past performances.”
Also present on the occasion were CAN vice-president Upendra Bhattarai, general secretary Tanka Paneru and member Binod Rajbhandari.
Nepal begins the campaign against Saudi Arabia on April 22 before taking up Hong Kong on April 24, Malaysia on April 25, and Singapore on April 27.
The semifinals are scheduled on April 29 and the final will be played on May 1.
Team Nepal: Gyanendra Malla (captain), Akash Gupta, Antim Thapa, Sagar Khadka, Amrit Bhattarai, Lal Bahadur Adhikari, Rom Shrestha, Chandra Sawad, Sunny Pun, Anupam Singh, Subash Pradhan, Rupesh Srivastav, Anil Kumar Mandal and Prithu Baskota.
Officials: Roy Dias (coach), Mahesh Rijal (assistant coach) and Shailesh Chaudhary (manager).