Cricket featured on all categories when Nepal Sports Journalists Forum (NSJF) announced nominees for the nation’s most prestigious sports awards - the NSJF LG Player of the Year Award.

Paras Khadka (nominated in three categories) and Nary Thapa (nominated in two categories).

Among 27 nominees announced in five categories, 10 were from cricket - four more than football, which has six nominations. Cricket and football is the dominating sports in Nepal.

Jai Kumar Nath Shah, the former president of Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN), was felicitated by Gairidhara Club on Monday as he became the first Nepali to receive the honorary life membership of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).

Every time Nepali national cricket team leaves the country, it instills high hopes in all Nepalis. There are always opportunities and there is always somewhere up to go; and normally a step ahead means dreams coming true. But, unfortunately, the dream always crash down with a defeat in the crucial match after a series of impressive wins. This has been a story of Nepali cricket for the last six years.

Nepal has lost four semifinals in the last four years and every defeat has deprived Nepal of an opportunity to go higher in the world cricket. In 2005, Fiji defeated Nepal in the semifinal of the World Cup Qualifying Series Division II that ended Nepal’s hopes of playing in the main World Cup qualifiers.

Samiullah Shinwari played a heroic knock to guide Afghanistan to a three-wicket win over Nepal in the third-place playoff of the ACC Trophy Elite 2008 at the Bayuemas Oval in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Saturday.

It was the same old story repeated once again, as Nepal lost the crucial ACC Trophy Elite semi-final against four-time champions UAE at the Selangor Turf Club of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Friday.

Electing to bat first, Nepal made paltry 166 - the score that UAE chased in 45.4 overs losing four wickets to qualify for the final against Hong Kong.

The points table of the ACC Trophy Elite 2008 after the completion of the league round.

Nepal continued its impressive run beating Kuwait by seven wickets in the last league match of the ACC Trophy Elite 2008 on Wednesday. With the win, Nepal topped Group B with eight points and will now meet UAE in the semifinal.

The results on Tuesday confirmed semifinal berth for Nepal and United Arab Emirates (UAE) while Hong Kong and Afghanistan have a foot into the semifinal going into the last round of match on Wednesday.

Nepal’s qualification was confirmed after Qatar beat Kuwait by 24 runs. With the loss, Kuwait chances’ of gaining three wins faded away and now it’s only Hong Kong that can have three wins in four matches while Nepal has won all three matches.