The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) is organizing the tournament for the first time. Following the age verification problems, ACC has withdrawn the U-15 and U-17 tournaments from its schedules and introduced the U-16 tournament. [break]
Nepal, who have won all the ACC age group tournaments at least once, are strong contenders for the U-16 tournament also. Nepal had won the ACC U-15 Elite Cup twice and U-17 once while they had won the ACC U-19 Elite Cup four times.
Playing at home, Nepal have strong support behind them. Swichan Shah will lead the Nepali U-16 team in front of home crowd.
Shah said his aim is to lift the trophy. "Nepal have very a good record of winning age group trophies at home and we will continue the trend," said Shah.
"We went through a very good training session under coach Roy Dias and hope to do well," added Shah.
Shah claims that bowling side is strong in the team. However, he claimed batting order is no less strong with five batsmen and two all-rounders.
On the other side, Hong Kong´s coach Sher Bahadur Lama said his team is all set to clash with Nepal. "The matches against Nepal are always tough; whoever play best on the day can win the match," said Lama.
The Nepali-origin Hong Kong coach, however, admitted that Nepal are strong contenders of the tournament. "Nepal are tournament favorites but we are also not the underdogs," said Lama.
The match will kick off at 9 a.m. at the TU Cricket Grounds, Kirtipur. Meanwhile, Kuwait will clash with Bahrain at the Pulchowk Cricket Grounds and Singapore will take on Malaysia at the BSAM Grounds, Bhaktapur.
All the age group matches will be played in the 40-over format.
Nepal happy to host
Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) expressed its delight to host the tournament for the first time in Nepal.
CAN President Binaya Raj Pandey, addressing a press conference organized to inform about the preparations for the tournament on Sunday, said CAN is happy to host such tournaments.
"We have been hosting tournaments every year but this time ACC has given all the responsibility to us and it is a matter of pride for Nepal", said Pandey.
ACC has appointed all but two -- MV Ramesh (Singapore) and Upul Kaluhetti (Thailand) -- Nepali umpires for the tournament. Buddhi Bahadur Pradhan will lead the Nepali umpires Satyajit Sarkar, Manohar Adhikari, Durga Nath Subedi, Ram Kailash Yadav, Himal Raj Giri and Raman Shiwakoti.
Likewise, Hira Lal Raut, Manghi Lal Sharma and Sirish Upadhyay are kept as reserve umpires for the tournament.
All the match referees are Nepalis. Bijay Sharma, LB Chhetri and Raju Khadka are appointed as match referees. Sharma is former chief of national selection committee while Khadka and Chhetri are former captains of Nepali national team.
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