The cricket governing body in its announcement on October 31, 2018 named Batsmen Paras Khadka and Sharad Veswakar, and bowlers Sompal Kami and Basanta Regmi in the ICC Men’s T20 ranking.

Among other countries players, Paras and Sharad from Nepal stood at 94^th and 100^th positions in the batsmen category.

Whereas, Regmi and Sompal represented the Himalayan nation in the bowler category at 74th and 92^nd positions, respectively.

Surprisingly, the recent-times most-popular Nepal’s spinning sensation Sandeep Lamichhane was not found in the rankings.

Top rankings went to Pakistani batsman Babar Azam, Afghan bowler Rashid Khan and Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell in their respective categories.

Pakistan followed by India topped the list as the highest-ranked T20 team in the Men’s category and Australia followed by New Zealand, which led the Women’s category.

New Zealander Suzie Bates was named the best batsman and Australian bowler Megan Schutt grabbed the best bowler ranking, followed by West Indies player Stefanie Taylor in the all-rounder respective category in the Women’s T20 rankings.

ICC decides players’ ranking based on their performance in international tournaments.

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The Trophy began its Nepal tour on October 26, 2018 after its successful journey in Bangladesh.

During its four-day tour in Nepal, the Trophy will cover different places of Nepal including Kathmandu, Swayambhu, Chandragiri and Pokhara.

Beginning with Kathmandu on October 25, 2018, the Trophy was taken to the UNESCO Heritage Swayambhu Temple for a photo shoot.

In a brief ceremony at the event, the International Cricket Council (ICC) unpacked the Trophy for its photo shoot at the Monkey Temple.

The next day, it was taken to Pokhara, where it was put for display at the Pokhara Stadium- the venue of the Pokhara Premier League (PPL).

The further journey continued to Chandragiri Hills via a cable car for scenic photography, followed by interviews with players on October 28, 2018.

“We are also planning to have a meet and greet program with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on its way back from Chandragiri Hills. We have a program hosted by Hublot’s regional retail partner at Durbar Marg on Sunday evening,” Bhawana Ghimire, former CEO of Cricket Association of Nepal and ICC’s local representative in Nepal, said in a statement.

Later, the Trophy was brought to the Basantapur Durbar Square, where it was kept for public display on October 29, 2018 before its next travel to India, other countries and finally to England and Wales, the venue for the 2019 ODI Cricket World Cup in February 2019.

The 60-cm tall and 11-kg trophy is made of gold and silver and features a golden globe held by three silver columns.

While the columns in stumps and bails shapes represent the three fundamental aspects of cricket i.e. batting, bowling and fielding, the golden globe represents a cricket ball.

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Nepal and Singapore are going to test their luck in a final match to be held in Malaysia on October 11, 2018.

With 10 points each from five wins, the two teams are finally at the top place after a series of fights against the seven teams that participated in the tournament.

Nepal is currently high on energy for its last rejoicing win against the Chinese team on October 10, 2018, which lasted for less than 15 overs.

On the other side, Singapore is also riding on a 95-run success it saw against Bhutan in a match held in Bangi.

Now, both teams stand qualified for further round of the tournament and will move to ICC World Twenty20 Asia Finals, alongside either Thailand or Malaysia.

Thailand is currently at third with seven points more than Malaysia, which is set for its final match with China on October 12, 2018.

Trailing on a net run rate with Nepal, a win against Nepali cricket team matters a lot for the Singapore team to win the trophy, and vice-versa.

Let’s wait and watch!

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Sandeep drew wide attention from the global audience for his entry into the 11^th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after the Delhi Daredevils bought him for Rs 20 lakh in an auction in January 2018.

The 17-year-old Sandeep’s name has been trending all over since then, and a new announcement took him to further heights.

In a recent update, Daredevils CEO Hemant Dua and Nepal National Sports Council Member Secretary Keshab Kumar Bista gave off the jersey No.1 to Sandeep, who was really awestruck at this response from IPL!

“I cannot take the number 25 from my seniors, as the birth date of my deceased Nephew falls on January i.e. 1, so I took the number for the jersey and we always want to be number one for which I took the number,” Sandeep said in response.

Adding flavor to his joy, Delhi Daredevils CEO Hemant Dua moved on to Twitter saying, “Great moment as @IamSandeep25 was handed his jersey No 1 by #KeshavBista head of #NationalSportsCouncil of #Nepal as the … and yes our young @DelhiDaredevils boy looks amazing in the jersey #DilDilli.”

“Somebody from Nepal would have taken him before us had we not stepped in. Sandeep Lamichhane is someone who is talented who brings something unique to the team,” Dua added.

This IPL season, to be held from April 7 to May 27, 2018, has a total of eight teams participating in it.

Sandeep will be playing along with the Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, Kagiso Rabada (South Africa) and paceman Trent Boult (New Zealand), among others in Delhi Daredevils.

The Nepali leg-spinner has recently returned to Nepal after the World Cup Qualifiers match with Zimbabwe and will embark on the India trip for IPL very soon.

A Rocket-like Journey

Sandeep’s growth to this level has been so fast that he earned this wide recognition of becoming the IPL boy just within two years after getting selected to the Nepali national cricket team.

First identified by Nepali national cricket coach Pubudu Dassanayake, Sandeep’s talent got a due recognition when he was invited by Australian cricketer Michael Clarke to train at his cricket academy in Sydney after watching his sport at the Hong Kong Twenty20 Blitz tournament in 2016.

“Playing with a player like Michael Clarke is such as a big thing. It was amazing and sharing a dressing room with him and getting experience from him, it was something like a dream come true,” Sandeep said at that moment.

Often compared to spin-legend Shane Warne, Sandeep became centric to the world media after he got selected to IPL, and Nepali personalities were no exception. Ex-Prime Minister of Nepal Sher Bahadur Deuba tweeted to Sandeep saying, “Not just me, but the entire nation is proud of you.”

“If you get the chance to play in the IPL, lots of players will be there who are very experienced, and I think I will learn a lot,” Sandeep said earlier, which shows his love for learning through success.

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According to a recent update, Sandeep has been selected for the sixth edition of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Twenty20 tournament through an auction held in London on March 01, 2018.

With this, Sandeep becomes the first Nepali cricket player to play CPL.

The tournament has been scheduled to start on August 8, 2018 and will see a total of six franchises participating in it.

The auction saw selection of 227 players including 53 players from Pakistan and 23 from Sri Lanka, besides the members from test-playing countries such as England, Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh and South Africa.

Sandeep was a special attraction in the auction and was bought by St Kitts and Nevis Patriots team for a price of USD 5,000.

Sandeep’s selection to the tournament was based on his outstanding performance at the ICC Division-2 tournament, which gave Nepali cricket team an entry to the 2019 World Cup Qualifiers.

“Excited to be announced as the player of @sknpatriots for this season of @CPL! Thanks to @sknpatriots team for showing your faith in me! And thanks to all the fans and well-wishers for your love and support,” tweeted Sandeep expressing his excitement over his entry to CPL 2018.

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In a recent update in this regard on February 20, 2018, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has also announced the 19-member Nepali cricket team that would be playing the Qualifiers tournament.

The team to be led by Captain Paras Khadka and Vice-Captain Gyanendra Malla has Dipendra Singh Airee, Aarif Sheikh, Rohit Kumar Poudel, Dillip Nath, Sandeep Lamichhane, Karan KC, Sharad Bheshwakar, Sompal Kami, Basanta Regmi, Shakti Gauchan, Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi, Anil Kumar Sah and Lalit Bhandari.

Besides the main team, ICC has also selected Kishor Mahato, Siddhant Lohani, Binod Bhandari and Sunil Dhamala as reserve players.

It is noteworthy here that Nepal has recently secured its entry to the Qualifier round through the astonishing victory it has garnered in the ICC World Cricket League Division-2 match with Canada on February 14, 2018.

Despite its win against Canada, Nepal moved to Group B in the Qualifier round because of its final defeat against UAE in the Division-2 final match against UAE.

Nepal will be facing Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Scotland and Hong Kong in the Group B of the Qualifier round, with first match against the Zimbabwe team on March 04, 2018, followed by the second one with Scotland team on March 8, 2018, third with Afghanistan on March 10, 2018 and fourth with the Hong Kong team on March 12, 2018.

Whereas, Group A consists of UAE, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Scotland and Hong Kong.

The winner and first runner-up of these two groups will appear in the ICC World Cup 2019 slated to be held in England and Wales in 2019.

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With this, the Nepali team advanced to semi-finals of the ACC U-19 Youth Asia Cup 2017.

This is the first time that Nepal, in its cricket history, has entered semi-finals of the tournament after clearing the knockout stage.

In the match that was limited for 24 overs due to rain, Nepal bowled Malaysia in just 15.3 overs at a 45-run score with a stunning performance by its bowler Sandeep Lamichhane who took five wickets.

Then, Nepal’s batting order jumped in and finished off the target in just 32 balls with a dashing performance by the opener batsman Anil Kumar Sah.

Nepal To Take on Afghanistan in Semi-Finals

Even though Nepal won two matches to finish as Group A runners-up, its position in semi-finals remained secured following Bangladesh’s victory over India in another match held on the same day.

While Afghanistan stands in Group B with its win over UAE, Pakistan finished as Group runners-up.

Three-time champions India and Malaysia got eliminated out of the tournament from Group A, while Sri Lanka and UAE remained out from Group B.

In the semi-finals, the Nepali U19 cricket team will have its fight with Afghanistan and Bangladesh will take on Pakistan.

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In this 50-over ACC U-19 cricket match, Nepal batted first and set a score target of 186 runs for the Indian team with Dipendra Singh Airee alone scoring 88 runs.

Apart from Dipendra, Jitendra Singh (36) and Bhim Sarki (15) were those who scored double-digit in the Nepali team.

Then, the Indian cricket team made a good start with Himanshu Rana and Manjot Kalra who scored 60 runs in the first 10 overs.

However, the pace did not continue long because of a dashing bowling performance by Kamal Singh Airee of Nepal, who took the first wicket, of Rana’s, in the 13^th over.

This gradually boosted the confidence levels of the Nepali team and Dipendra, who had performed well in batting, displayed his bowling performance also by taking the last three wickets driving the Indian team to defeat with 11 balls remaining.

Pawan Sarraf (2) and Shahab Alam (2) were among other Nepali bowlers who performed well after Dipendra (4).

India finally lost the match to Nepal at 48.1 overs with 166 runs.

Nepali Team Elated at Dravid’s Wish

“Rahul Dravid, the Indian U-19 cricket coach, congratulated us. He said we deserved this win as much as anybody else. He also said we played better than anybody else in the tournament. We are happy he acknowledges our effort. We are thrilled to have his support with us,” said Binod Kumar Das, the Nepali U-19 cricket coach.

This is the sixth attempt that is coming as a great encouragement for the Nepali cricket team after facing a series of defeats against the Indian team in two U-19 World Cup and three U-19 Asia Cup matches.

Earlier to this match, Nepal had lost against Bangladesh and is now heading for its next fight with the Malaysian
U-19 team in its final group match on November 13, 2017.

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Nepal and Hong Kong are all set for final matches in the sixth round of the ICC World Cricket League Championship being held towards the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.

In this match to be held on October 13-15, 2017, the two teams will fight to secure the top-four position that is currently occupied by Kenya with 12 points.

Currently, the Hong Kong team is at the fifth position with 11 points followed by Nepali cricket team at the sixth place with 8 points.

The top four teams that pass the seventh round will be joining Afghanistan, Ireland, the West Indies and Zimbabwe in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018.

Whereas, the last four teams will have to face Canada and Oman in the ICC World Cricket League Division 2 2018 for winning the two remaining positions.

“It is a crucial series for Nepal. As a team, we have worked very hard to win both games and be in the top four in the standings after round seven. We will look to play high-intensity cricket and are looking forward to facing Hong Kong,” says Paras Khadka, the captain of Nepali team.

Meanwhile, Nepal National cricket team Head Coach Jagat Tamatta says, “The matches against
Hong Kong are important for us to keep our hopes alive in the WCL Championship. It is a challenge for us but we do not have other options. We are hopeful of playing better cricket against Hong Kong and remain in track to finish in top four to qualify for the World Cup Qualifiers.

The Hong Kong captain Babar Hayat says, “There are still six teams vying for four qualification spots. So, it is important for us to win both matches against Nepal and get maximum points.”

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