All four teams have won their first two matches and unless cricket lives by its fame of being a funny game, it will be Nepal and Afghanistan playing the final with our neighbor being a little more favorite to lift the title.[break]
Reaching the final will be considered hurdles cleared for Nepal as it will mean the qualification to the Youth World Cup (YWC) qualifiers and possibly the participation in sixth YWC after missing it last year.
The results of the first two matches -- beating UAE by 9 wickets and Oman by 304 runs -- gives a hope that this team is capable of emulating the glorious U-19 teams of the past that have dominated the event and earned the global fame of being the giant-killers defeating Test-nations, repeatedly, at the YWCs.
Prithu Baskota’s team has bowled well and batted well without giving the opponents any chance of putting pressure.
It of course feels good to see Nepal performing good.
And, it pains to see that Afghanistan has taken away the tag of next prospect for Test-nation from Nepal with their quality of game. Their rise in the last few years has been phenomenal.
They are now the top ranked country outside Test nations and win almost every tournament they participate in.
I am not, however, trying to rob the praise they deserve; rather I am ruing why Nepal failed to live up to the expectation and lost much of the prospect in the last decade.
I don’t believe we have slipped down in terms of quality and talent but it’s that we didn’t move up either -- at least not substantially.
Why has that happened? There can be many reasons but one of the major reasons is failure of Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) to come up with concrete plans and their implementation for the development of cricket.
For the last 10 years, CAN has remained merely as an agency for international participation and has been organizing tournaments for the sole purpose of selecting players.
For long, there has been talk of need for the plan to hunt and groom talent at the grassroots level; there has been talk about an annual calendar, but apart from a couple of attempts, things have not really taken off.
The Regional Cricket Development Committees, now eight in number, remain a jumbo committee without much to do.
Some of them lack the will to work and those with the will, have little space to work.
What is the way forward then? I believe CAN should allow the Regional Committees to work independently for promoting cricket at the grassroots level, hunt talent and groom it.
Financial independence or the space for them to look for regional sponsors is a key with which they will not only be able to organize events but also run camps and training sessions.
CAN at the center should play a pivotal role focusing on planning and implementing long-term development plans and look for continuation of international relations, bilateral tours and sponsorship.
To be straight, CAN should empower Regional Committees and act as a patron of cricket in the country.
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Before ending, congratulations to Nepal U-19, and especially Faljur Rahman Khan -- the man of the match in both victories, for the wonderful performance so far and wish them all the best for upcoming matches.
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