Nepal team is leaving on Friday for World Cricket League Division 5 Tournament. The tournament in Jersey begins on May 23 with Nepal taking on Germany.

The team will not play Sussex academy due to delay in visa process but will take Guernsey and Bahamas in Guernsey before the event. In Nepal, they played PCB Academy registering one stunning morale boosting win.

Nepal needs to reach the final of the event to qualify for World Cricket League Division 4 to be held in Tanzania in October.

NepalCricket.com will display the live scores of all matches on it’s homepage - thanks to CricketEurope.com - a partner site of NepalCricket.com which is running the official site of the tournament. The site is planning ball-by-ball coverage of at least two matches of Nepal and also there will be photos and interviews.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Academy cricket team arrived in Kathmandu Tuesday afternoon for three one-day matches against the Nepali national team. The PCB Academy will play against Nepal on Thursday, Friday and Sunday at the TU Cricket Ground.
Former Pakistani Test player Ijaz Ahmed is the coach of the team led by Khalid Latif. Latif made his One-Day International (ODI) debut for Pakistan against Zimbabwe in January this year. Left arm spinner and batsman Fawad Alam has also played impressively in six ODIs.
The team also consists another ODI player in Khurram Manzoor Khan.
Rahil Majid, Wahad Riaz, Mohammad Aamer, Yasir Shah, Sohail Khan, Adil Raza, Naeem Anjum, Ahmed Shehzad, Azhar Ali, Syed Imad Wasim, Ali Asad, Anwar Ali Khan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Sheikh Mohammad Asad make up the squad.
Syed Azhar Hussain Zaidi (manager), Saboor Ahmed (trainer), Mohd Adil Iqbal Bajwa (physio) and Umer Farooq Qureshi (analyst) complete the backroom team.
The Pakistani team flew in from Dhaka, Bangladesh where it won a triangular one-day series against academy sides of Bangladesh and South Africa. It won all four matches on a trot including the final after losing to South Africa by six runs in a league match. It also defeated Bangladesh Academy in two four-day matches by identical margin of eight wickets. 
The series is an opportunity for Nepal to prepare for the World Cricket League Division 5 Tournament to be held in Jersey next month.

• Khurram Manzoor Khan
• Fawad Alam
• Khalid Latif
• Sarfraz Ahmed
• Sohail Khan

Anyway, Best of luck for our team, we are always with u. Fight till the last bowl they will bowl.

I would like to say best of luck.

Added by Ujjwal

Here is the CricInfo’s coverage site for the WCL Div 5.

And Here is a preview news titled - World Cup dream for twelve nations

I am posting this article here to make my complain official. I have made a complain against Indian Premiere League at International Cricket Council, Asian Cricket Council and Cricinfo. The complain was sent in the form of email on 23 April 2008 at around 1800 hrs GMT. The complains were sent to enquiries@icc-events.com , media@asiancricket.org and through Cricinfo contact box. Email to ICC and ACC were sent with the subject IPL: The Unfair Business. The email to Cricinfo was subjected to Cricinfo Editoral.
I have attached my email to ACC here but emails to ICC and Cricinfo are very similar. 

I will be posting all the happenings here.

==============================================
The Complain:
Dear ACC MANAGEMENT,
I would like to attract your attention towards the ground staff of the on going IPL series in India. The multi million project is being well anticipated by the cricket world but no one have considerd looking at the HEALTH and SAFETY issue of the ground staff. If you watch carefully, almost all the ground staff are bare footed. HOW CAN THAT BE ACCEPTABLE IN TERMS OF HEALTH AND SAFETY?  ARE THE GROUND STAFF COVERED BY ANY INSURENCE IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO THEM AS A RESULT OF THAT?
 
The Asian governing body of cricket must not over look this. Everyone must be safe while working on behalf of ACC, may that be the ground staff or the head of ICC/ ACC. I hope ACC will also have a say about this matter.
 
I hope something would be done to help the minors in danger.

Many Thanks,
Binod Simkhada
Scotland UK

============================================
(Disclaimer: I am not against the concept of IPL but truly in the spirit of it.)
( I can be contacted through this webage comment or my personal email binbiksim@hotmail.com )

CAN has selected 18 members preliminary squad for upcoming world league division 5, today.

In that squad, we can see there is 6 specialist Batsmen (Paresh Lohani, Sarad Veswakar, Dipendra Chaudhary, Gyanendra Malla, Antim Thapa and Yashwant Subedi), 7 specialist Bowlers (Binod Das, Sanjam Regmi, Raj Kumar Pradhan, Amrit Bhattarai, Dhirendra Chand, Manjeet Shrestha and Pramod Basnet), 4 allrounders (Paras Khadka, Shakti Gauchan, Mehboob Alam and Basant Regmi) and 1 wicketkeeper (Mahesh Chhetri).

As we all know, our main problem is our batting rather than bowling but still here we have more bowlers than batsmen.  I surprised to see it, can’t they still understand what’s our problem? Can’t we pick more special batsmen or don’t we have any capable batsmen more?

I want to ask them, why they picked Antim here where he could not made his place even in U19 playing line up in last U19 world cup where he played mere 2 or 3 matches and I don’t remember he has played any remarkable knock in last league. and same question about Dhirendra, Rajkumar and Manjeet, I don’t think he had good league this time around.

Raju Basnet has very good leage here but he could not make a place what’s the problem with him?

The Squad:

1. Binod Das
2. Paresh Lohani
3. Paras Khadka
4. Shakti Gauchan
5. Mehboob Alam
6. Sanjam Regmi
7. Sarad Veswakar
8. Dipendra Chaudhary
9. Gyanendra Malla
10. Mahesh Chhetri
11. Raj Kumar Pradhan
12. Amrit Bhattarai
13. Basant Regmi
14. Dhirendra Chand
15. Manjeet Shrestha
16. Pramod Basnet
17. Antim Thapa
18. Yashwant Subedi.

hellow guys, what do you have ideas about this squad?

Domestic One Day league have started today with defending champion Bhairahawa playing the curtain raiser against region six, Baitadi. As usual the match in being held in Kathmandu valley. Last minute change to the venues means Bhaktapurs’ only ground at Army School wont see any matches. Engineering college ground, Lab School ground, University ground will hold all the matches.

Bhairahawa despite being the defending champion, face a uphill task to keep the title as four time champion Biratnagar and last years finalist Kathmandu are strnger than ever. Biratnagar got mixed team of youth and experienced but Kathmandu is almost full of U-19 players. The national captain led Birjung will also give tough time to opponents despite their weak batting line up. Nepaljung as always may not be able to  put any competation. Baiatdi is a dark horse with buch of talented player playing for them.

The regular stars like Alam, Chand, Das and Veswakar may steal the lime light again this year. The young players like Rom Shrestha, Rahul BK, Nirmal Simangaida will try to make mark on the national stage. This year will be a big compeation among the rising youth and the fading experienced.

The big hype of U-19 World Cup is over with huge disappointment. Our hope of entering into super league only remained as hope. Moreover, we surrendered our Plate Title to Windies in a disappointing fashion. Thanks to our batsman. No further comments.

We are on the verge of our senoir world cup qualifying matches. I personally do not have much hope. Especially with BCCI forcing ICC to cut down the numbers of Associate nations in World Cup. I can see this happening denting the like of countries like Nepal to enter the big stage. BCCI the financial Superpower in world cricket is doing nothing to globalise the game. With the financial power they have they can heavily influence each and every decision ICC takes.

Thats the further stage, what about qualifying first before fighting against BCCI for the 15th and 116th spot in 2011 World Cup. All other teams fighting for this spot is almost as similar as Nepal. We have 50-50 chance nothing more than that. And with the preparation we have even less chances.

May God Save Nepali Cricket.

This article is published ICC U19 WorldCup website………

Here is the link

http://iccevents.yahoo.com/news/latestnews/news20080206-10.html

Nepal will rely heavily on its giant-killing abilities when it faces two-time former champion Australia and Sri Lanka in an intriguing Group C of this month’s ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup in Penang.

Nepal has beaten five Full Members at the last three ICC U/19 Cricket World Cups and finished ninth at the 2006 event, ahead of New Zealand and South Africa, both of which it defeated.

In contrast, Australia, winners in 1988 and 2002, had a disappointing sign off to its 2006 campaign when it crashed to a heavy 163-run defeat against eventual winners Pakistan in the semi-finals. Sri Lanka was also left licking its wounds in its backyard two years ago when it lost to Bangladesh by 98 runs in the fifth place play-off final.

With two places up for grabs in the Super League from a group that also includes Namibia, the second game will be crucial as Nepal will face Sri Lanka at the Penang Sports Club on 18 February. On the following day, Nepal will then go head-to-head with Australia before curtains will fall on the group matches with the feature game between Australia and Sri Lanka.

Nepal, coached by former Sri Lanka opener Roy Dias, qualified for the tournament from the Asia region after finishing unbeaten in the 10-team tournament in Kuala Lumpur. It is coming to the tournament well prepared as its boys have been together for more than four months, playing matches and training hard before winding up with a three-match series against the Bangladesh U/19 team.

With a balanced team with a right mix of experience and raw talent, Nepal hopes to leave another mark on the tournament like it did in the 2002 when it defeated Pakistan and Bangladesh before losing to Zimbabwe in the plate final and again in 2006 when it finished ahead of New Zealand and South Africa.

Key players in the team are skipper Paras Khadka, Gyanendra Malla and B.K. Rahul.

Making his third ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup appearance, Paras is greatly experienced and probably country’s best all-rounder. He is also an intelligent player and leads the team from the front.

Gyanendra is also an accomplished batsman who adapts well to match conditions while left-arm spinner Rahul, the find of the year, played in the ACC T20 Cup in Kuwait last October. For his age he showed a lot of maturity by adapting well to match conditions.

Australia’s teenagers, despite their setback in the last competition, will be fired-up to match the achievements of their senior team which completed a hat-trick of ICC Cricket World Cups in the West Indies last year.

Though Pakistan has the opportunity to make it three-in-a-row at the U/19 level, Australia also has the chance to pocket its third title. Its team is packed with talent.

From New South Wales comes Phillip Hughes, the left-handed opener who scored 752 runs at 35.81 with four fifties and one century in first-class cricket. Hughes had also scored 387 runs at 96.75 from five matches in the home series against Pakistan U/19 in Brisbane early last year.

Michael Hills is the find from the recent U/19 camp at Hobart while Kumar Sarna is a dashing opener who has enjoyed great performances at all levels that he has played. All-rounder Jeremy Smith is strong and fast with the ball and able to swing it either way.

As part of the tournament built-up, the Aussies played Pakistan on a home and away basis with contrasting results. It won the home series 3-2 but suffered a 5-0 drubbing on its return tour last October.

Australia also faced Malaysia over two games and then wrapped up a training camp with two trial games against New Zealand last month.

Sri Lanka, despite a proud record at senior level, has struggled at this level and its best performance was eight years ago when it finished runners-up to India.

This time it comes just as well prepared as its rivals. Following a squad selection in mid-October, the players took to the nets that were held four days a week under coach Roger Wijesooriya.

The young team played a tri-nation series against England and Bangladesh in July and toured Bangladesh last December for five one-day matches which it lost 3-2. Shortly before it left for Malaysia, Sri Lanka gave final touchup to its preparations by playing a tri-series where it finished runners-up to Pakistan with England being the third team.

The key players in the Sri Lankan line-up include Ashan Priyanjan, Sacith Pathirana, Tissara Perera and Roshen Silva. They have proved consistent in their performances and have gained lot in exposure and experience both locally and internationally.

Namibia, the fourth team in Group C, will arrive in Malaysia with the potential and promise to cause a few surprises.

In their build-up to the tournament, Namibia had several training camps in the later part of last year and had two more camps this year, including playing against senior clubs as warm-up matches.

The Namibian teenagers to watch are team captain Dawid Botha, Sean Silver, Raymond van Schoor and L.P.van der Westhuizen who all have played in the ICC Intercontinental Cup.

Namibia’s road to Malaysia started with the team going to Benoni, South Africa last August for the Africa U/19 Qualifier. In the first game, Namibia suffered a six-wicket defeat to Kenya before it bounced back to beat Zambia and Ghana to finish second in its pool. In the semi-finals, Namibia defeated Uganda by nine wickets before beating Kenya by 39 runs in the final.

In the semi-finals, Namibia beat Uganda by eight wickets and then upset Kenya by 40 runs in the final to book a place in a tournament considered as cricket’s finishing school.

GROUP C (to be based in Penang, seeding in brackets)
Australia (3)
Sri Lanka (6)
Nepal (11)
Namibia (14)

Schedule:
17 February - Australia v Namibia, Penang Sports Club (PSC)
18 February - Sri Lanka v Nepal, PSC
19 February - Australia v Nepal, University Sains Malaysia (USM)
20 February - Sri Lanka v Namibia, USM
21 February - Nepal v Namibia, PSC
22 February - Australia v Sri Lanka, USM

GROUP C SQUADS

AUSTRALIA
Michael Hill (captain), Daniel Burns, Michael Cranmer, James Faulkner, Josh Hazlewood, Phillip Hughes, David King, Dominic O’Brien, Kirk Pascoe, James Pattinson, Clive Rose, Anant Sarna, Jeremy Smith, Steven Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Cameron Francis, Christopher Quelch.

NAMIBIA
Dawid Botha (captain), Claude Bouwer, Gert Coetzee, Morne Engelbrecht, Tiaan Louw, Elandre Oosthuizen, Bernard Scholtz, Sean Silver, Ewald Steenkamp, Keady Strauss, Louis van der Westhuizen, Izak van Niekerk, Ashley van Rooi, Raymond van Schoor, Helao Ya France.

NEPAL
Paras Khadka (captain), Rahul Vishwakarma, Rom Shrestha, Aakash Gupta, Antim Magar, Gyanendra Malla, Raj Shrestha, Abhaya Rana, Sagar Khadka, Amrit Bhattarai, Mahesh Chhetri, Chandra Sawad, Anil Mandal, Puspa Thapa, Subash Pradhan.

SRI LANKA
Ashan Subasinghe (captain), Sachith Pathirana, Thisara Perera, Roshane Silva, Mohamed Mazahir, Dinesh Chandimal, Dilshan Munaweera, Imesh Udayanga, Navin Kavikara, Denuwan Fernando, Ishan Jayarathne, Angelo Perera, Chatura Peiris, Umesh Karunarathna, Kusal Perera.

U-19 world cup fever is already hanging over Nepali cricket fans. Why not? As this is, so far the only chance when our National heros get chance to compete against the “big boys”. Previous editions of this junior world cup have shown lot of interest all around the globe and even more in Nepal. Who knew that, the opposing captain facing Binod Das would be Greame Smith one day? It would be a big fantasy to see that happening now.

Nepal have upset few of the “big boys” in the junior version. Nepal have played well in  all World cup and all Asia cup. Only thing that really annoys me is the seeding of the nations in this world cup. These nations participating in junior world cup should be seeded solely according to their performance in same level not because of their test status. This is hampering ours boys progress.

Nepal was seeded 11th on the list, why? Looking at the past junior world cup performances, Australia, SA, NZ and Zimbawae do not deserve for the automatic seeding inside the first 10 or even the automatic selection. This is what is hampering the progress of our cricket. Not seeding our team properly means we have to play another two strong nations (Aus and SL this time). Any group Nepal is placed is name group of death only beacuse of Nepals presence and performance.

Veswakar was one of the highest scoreer in last two editions, which saw Alistar Cook, the English man who have six Test century under his belt now. The lost hero, Kaniska Chaugain also had the similar feat. Binod Das was praised for his captaincy against SA in junior world cup, who was playing against Greame Smith, one of the finest captain in modern cricket. These are just a few examples. Most Indian players who played against Nepal in Kathmandu Klash in 2001 are the mainstay of Indian cricket now. IK Pathan, Munaf Patel, Dinesh Karthik all struggled against the Nepali boys at that time.

Its a time we need to raise again and show the world how consistantly we are producing fine “home grown” cricketers. I know, this time also some Shakti Gauchans’ will be compared to Dravids and some Paras Khadkas’ will be compared to Flintoffs.

Best of Luck boys.

Now, we are just ahead of our road to World Cup 11 where we start it playing world league div. 5 in Jersey on May. But still I could not see any proper preparation planning for our seniors. I am really surprised about what the CAN is thinking. Are they really want to play in world cup or what? What the matter? or do they think, Nepal is strong enough to beat mighty USA, Afghanistan or even home country Jersey?

I am surprised when i saw their schedule of play, why aren’t they taking seriously about time. I think we are already short of time, our next important tournament is coming very quickly, still we are not moving quickly towards that. why are they waiting for March 15 to get start national league. After starting our national league onwards from march 15 then we could select players in end of march only. then where is the time for proper training. we may have one month camp then we have to move to england prior going to Jersey. I dont understand why are we stickwith one month camp. what does CAN think, one month course will help to go to world cup? Or Has CAN already withdrawn the chances to fight for World Cup place? why does not CAN be serious?

About National League, is it again scheduled in 2 groups league where we have only six teams to compete? Cant CAN afford to have league in full version? where a player can play atleast 5 games rather than 2 games. It would be fair to all players to show their talents. And I want to say that dont take any players for their names. just like now Sharad and Paresh are not in good touch and if they dont play good in national league then dont select them. now I am impressed with Sobhakant Pandey, he is very consistant, who is he? where was he before?

In a Bangali fan site, where fans are raising a issue whether our Nepalese team go to Bangladeshi League or to play some matches with Bangali ‘A’ team or Academy team. They said their academy team just finished a tour in Hongkong on their’s request. So, Cant CAN request Bangladeshi Board to invite us to their league or to send their A team. 

If CAN is really serious about World Cup, then take it as a chance to be better prepared. I usually amased thinking that if we are selected for World Cup then we can claim our group match to organise ourselves which is going to happen in south asia.

Then we could say: A real World Cup will come to NEPAL.