The firstever cricket calender of Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) will focus three desciplines: introduction to cricket, Nepal’s preparation for international events and umpire training.
According to CAN secretary Binay Raj Pandey, the calender will be released very shortly.
“The calender is designed to maintain Nepal’s current international performance,” he said to NepalCricket.
Nepal leapfrogged from 21 to 12th place outwitting its Asian counterparts Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore in the current ICC associated members’ ranking. The country also managed its place in division ‘B’ ensures that it would be easier for Nepal to acquire a berth for World Cup 2007.
From this year, CAN will distribute cricketing equiments and conduct coaching programme to all the teams for the regional tournament. The district-level tournament also should be followed by selection tournament where CAN will provide cricket balls. The district-level tournament which will the regional team selection tournament for ‘Birendra Memorial National League’ will be completed by the end of November.
The national league will be held in February this time after a 7-day camp in Janauary’s last week. The first episode of national league was held in last May which was largely affected by rain.
“Those selected from national league will play the visiting Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in the second week of March,” added Pandey. MCC, the oldest cricket club in the world, will be in Nepal for a short tour in March next year. The Mother’s Club MCC will play two One Day matches and a two-days match with the Nepali team on their visit.
And after the tour of MCC, the National Sports Council (NSC) will select Nepali national team which will tour India to play friendly matches with local clubs. Finally, CAN will set a 45-day camp, which will leave for USA to play ICC Qualifier tournament to be held in September 2003.
CAN will follow indentical process for the selection of Under-15 and Under-17 teams which will go to United Arab Emirates (UAE) and India respectively. Also is the list is umpire training, which will be held in all five regions.