Kathmandu – Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) bade farewell to the National Cricket Men’s team on Tuesday afternoon amid a function in Kathmandu for the upcoming ICC World Twenty20 Qualifiers and ICC World Cricket League Championship.
CAN officials along with the Current Squad of National team were present in the programme. Minister of Youth and Sports – Purusottam Paudel used to be present in these kinds of farewell programme but he was not seen today and instead Narayan Prakash Saud, the minister of Irrigation was invited as a chief guest.
During the programme, CAN revealed its new jersey for the National Cricket team designed by Sunbi as the agreement with BS Sports (Pakistan) had already been expired.
Similarly, they also confirmed the extension of the contract of the head coach Pubudu Dassanayake by six months till December 31, 2015. But the coach himself is not satisfied with this decision. “Personally, I am not satisfied with the extension period of my tenure. Sports Ministry had previously extended the period for a year and again they extended this time but for a little time”, Dassanayake told.
Speaking with the media, Skipper Paras Khadka also expressed his intention to win the tournament rather than qualifying for the ICC Twenty20 World Cup in 2016. “We are a strong team for the tournament and our recent 12 days practice tour to India has helped the team for the preparation before the qualifiers”, Skipper told. “We have to compete with strong teams there but we have did it in the past and will perform in any circumstances and definitely wants to win the tournament”, he further added.
Meanwhile, CAN has announced a cash prize of NRs. 250,000 to each member of the current squad if they get selected for the ICC Twenty20 World Cup 2016 to be held in India.
National team will fly to England on Tuesday at 21:30 NST. They will play practice matches in England against Middlesex (25 June), Club game (26 June), Gloucestershire Cricket Club (29 June) and Club game (29 June). The team will then travel to Netherlands for four Twenty 20 Internationals (June 30 -July 3) before the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifiers kicks off in Ireland and Scotland from July 9. Later, Nepal will compete two one-dayers with the Scotland team in the ICC World Cricket League Championship.
CAN has hired Monty Desai as a batting consultant and will join the team in England. Desai works as Coach for Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League
