According to the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN), the Austrian embassy has asked Saurav Khanal, Avinash Karn and Ram Naresh Giri to get their parents sign their visa application forms as they are still minors. [break]
"The three players are minors and the embassy has asked them to get visa application forms signed by their parents," said Kiran Rana, team manager of the Nepali U-19 team. "We are hopeful of completing the visa procedures by Friday. If the visa processing takes time, the three players will leave on August 3 along with other team officials," added Rana.
CAN member Sunil Amatya and video-analyst Raman Siwakoti have also not received visa to fly to Australia.
Nepali U-19 team under the captainship of Prithu Baskota will play two friendly matches on July 29 and August 3 against the local clubs in Durban and against Papua New Guinea and New Zealand at Brisbane as warm-up matches.
Nepal will play against Australia on August 13 at Tony Ireland Stadium (TIS), Townsville and take on Ireland on August 15 at Endeavour Park 1. Nepal will face England on August 16 at TIS.
"We have made the best preparation since U-19 Asia Cup," said Pubudu Dassanayake, the head-coach of the team. "However, I´ve told players that delivering in the match is what matters," he added.
When asked about Nepal´s image of ´giant-killer´ in the previous editions of U-19 World Cup, Dassanayake said mental strength would be the key at this level.
Nepal qualified for the World Cup for the sixth time as it finished ACC U-19 Elite Cup in 2011 and ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifiers in 2011 as the runner-up. Nepal had played all the U-19 World Cup since 2000 except the 2010 editions.
Nepal had reached the second round in 2000 and it remains as the best result so far. Nepal was plate champion in 2006 and had bagged plate runner-up trophies in 2002 and 2008. Nepal crashed out of the group stage in 2004.
Nepal had failed to qualify for the World Cup in 2010 as it had lost the ACC U-19 Elite Cup semifinal match against Afghanistan.
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