Nepal: Nation revels in Nepali success at Under 19 World Cup

Nepal's extraordinary performance in the Under-19 Youth World Cup in New Zealand has caught everybody's attention. The team members have became the overnight heroes and everybody - from the Prime Minister to a cricket follower - seems to believe that cricket can give the nation a different identity.

The cricket team is being felicitated everywhere. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba officially invited the team for tea in his official residence; former prime minister and high profile leader Girija Prasad Koirala awarded them prizes; Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) and National Sports Council (NSC) organized a felicitation ceremony and awarded each member of the team a cash prize of 15,000 rupees and all five regional cricket associations have announced their intention to award and felicitate the players from their region.

"The wins have forced us to work hard to provide the facilities for players to continue the performance," said Binay Raj Pandey, the honorary secretary of CAN. Pandey claimed the association will not step back from that.

The biggest boost to the sport is probably the coverage by Nepalese media. No other sports have got such coverage. Each win of Nepal was the front page story of each and every daily newspaper (thanks to the Internet!) The supplementary pages on Saturday and Sunday covered the team as the main story.

"Cricket is going to be big sport in Nepal," said Niranjan Rajbanshi, the senior sports editor of Nepal Samacharpatra, a vernacular daily. "People are interested and we are interested."

Nepal Television, mostly criticized for lack of interest in sports, was also at the front line. The daily coverage even included a recorded phone conversation with Binod Das, the captain. The state owned TV also broadcasted a 45 minute interview and analysis with the players and officials on Saturday.

Everyone believes that the win will be very good for Nepal. "The ACC decided to construct the Central Cricket Academy in Pokhara of Nepal, the decision making was made easy by the performace," said Rajendra Gyawali, the senior sports reporter of Kantipur daily. Gyawali was also a part of the team.

"Now the world cricket community knows Nepal and that will be probably the best thing for the future of Nepal's cricket," said Suman Malla, the senior sports reporter of The Kathmandu Post, the leading English daily.

Meanwhile, in Kathmandu, Beer Ganeshman Singh Memorial Invitational Cricket Tournament is being played. The tournament named after the pioneer warrior for democracy in Nepal has the very good prize money - Rs. 25000, 15000 and 10000 for champion and runner-ups. The Kathmandu Constituency No 2 Parliamentary Affair Committee of Nepal Tarun Dal, a sister association of ruling Nepali Congress is the organizer of the tournament being held in Tribhuwan University Ground.

The first two days of the tournament brought two very good individual performances. The first match was of Rajiv Shrestha who took 8 wickets for 35 runs and scored unbeaten 45 runs to claim man of the match and give his team, Parsa Cricket Association, a win of 143 runs over Baneshwor Cricket Club.

Parsa made 233/6 runs in 40 overs. Beside Rajiv, Kimon Ojha made 54, Captain Mushafer Izhar made unbeaten 34. Ritesh Baral of Baneswor took 3 for 37.

In reply, Baneswaor fell down in 85 in 22.5 overs.Only Subart Pandey and Ashok Chaudhary made significant contribution with 21 runs each. No other batsmen reached double figure.

The second day belonged to Dipendra Chaudhary. A reliable national team batsmen, he made an unbeaten 132 runs in 87 balls. Winning the toss, Mahabir Cricket Club elected to bat in the match reduced to 25 overs due to the rain. The quick fire by Dipendra took them to 178/2 in allotted overs. Dipendra hit 11 boundaries along with 6 maximums. Prafulla Vaidhya made unbeaten 32.

In reply, Parsa were all out in 54 in 17.2 overs. They lost by huge margin of 124 runs. Only openers reached the double figures. Kalamuddin Ansari (29) and Pratap Maharjan (16) added 33 but all other batsmen failed to contribute. Sandip Shrestha (4/7), Manish Lohani (2/4) and Kalam Ali (2/28) wrecked the winner of the first day.