“They have written us expressing interest to conduct practice matches in Nepal,” said Tarak Mani Dixit, secretary and spokesperson for the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN). “But we might have problem providing ground for the practice matches as we only have three grounds that are being repaired for the Division-5 League,” said Dixit.
“If the curator consents, we can provide one ground for the practice match,” he added.
Besides these countries, Bahrain and Jersey are also participating in the ICC event, which may be organized for the first time in Nepal. The top two teams of the competition will ascend to division-4 while the last two will fall to division-6. It is learnt that the US and Jersey started preparation for the Division-5 league a month ago.
Nepal, on the other hand, will complete the first round selection within this week. “We have to send the list of 18 team members to the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and the International Cricket Council (ICC) before December 22,” said Dixit. “We have told them that we will send a list of 24 players as we need some more time for selection,” he added.
Eighteen cricketers will be selected from the national team while the remaining six will be selected from the team who are to participate in the 11th South Asian Games (SAG).
Gyanendra Malla, Binod Bhandari, Naresh Budhaire and Amrit Bhattarai, who participated in the ACC Twenty20 held recently in the UAE, are in the SAG team while Chandra Saud, who is also in the team, was among the last 18 players selected during the ACC Twenty20. All these players are below 21 years.
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