Cricnepal/Kathmandu – Cricket Association of Nepal announced a 15 member team for the upcoming ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2012 to be held in Queensland, Australia from August 11 to 26.
Prithu Baskota will lead the Nepal team and Pradeep Airee will be his deputy. Jagat Tamata has been assigned the Assistant Coach along with Pubudu Dasanayeke, the National coach. Kiran Rana is the Manager for the Nepal team and Rawan Shivakota will be working as a technical staff during the tour.
Nepal Squad – Pradeep Airee, Prithu Baskota, Naresh Budhaayer, Ramnaresh Giri, Mahamad Hasim Ansari, Bhuban Karki, Krishna Karki, Avinash Karn, Saurabh Khanal, Gopal Singh, Rahul Kumar Vishwakarma, Rajesh Pulami, Subash Khakurel, Sagar Pun and Fajlur Rahman.
Sixteen teams will be competing in the ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup 2012. Along with ICC’s 10 Full members, the ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup 2012, being supported by Events Queensland, will see six qualifiers – Namibia (from the Africa Region), Afghanistan and Nepal (from the Asia Region), Papua New Guinea (from the East Asia-Pacific Region) and Ireland and Scotland (from the Europe Region) – taking part in Brisbane, Townsville and the Sunshine Coast from 11-26 August.
The six teams qualified from the 10-team ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup 2011 Qualifier, which took place in Ireland from 28 July to 9 August 2011.
The 16 teams have been divided into four groups. The top two teams in each group after the group stage progress to the Super League quarter-finals while the two bottom teams from each group qualify for the Plate Championship quarter-finals. The winners of the Super League quarter-finals will qualify for the semi-finals, whereas the losing quarter-finalists will play in the Super League play-offs.
Nepal is placed in Group A alongside hosts Australia, England and Ireland. Nepal will play Australia on August 13 at Tony Ireland Stadium (TIS), Townsville and will take on Ireland on August 15 at Endeavor Park 1, Townsville. Likewise, Nepal will lock horns with England on August 16 at TIS.
Nepal is set to play two practice matches before the start of the tournament, first against PNG on August 7 and New Zealand on August 8.
The winners of the Plate Championship quarter-finals will play in the Plate Championship semi-finals, while the beaten quarter-finalists will participate in the Plate Championship play-offs.
A total of 48 matches, including 24 in the first round, 12 in the Super League, and 12 in the Plate Championship will be played at eight venues – Tony Ireland Stadium, Endeavour Park 1, Endeavour Park 2 (all in Townsville), Allan Border Field, Peter Burge Oval (Redlands DCC), WEP Harris Oval (in Brisbane) John Blanck Oval and Kev Hackney Oval (on the Sunshine Coast).
The tournament will be televised live by ESPN Star Sports, ICC’s global broadcast partners.
