After Nepali coach Roy Dias returned from Bhairahawa disheartened by the news that Nepal wouldn’t play in the Asia Cup, I had a short interview with him for The Kathmandu Post. Here is the full interview.
What you have to say about Nepal not playing in the Asia Cup?
It is very, very sad. I am surprised to hear that we are not playing in the Asia Cup. They have talked about performance, which is a lame excuse. We have done well. We have just beaten UAE in a three-day game. In one-day, you need luck but in three-day you have to play well. It’s bad for Nepal.
Whom do you think we should blame for this?
I don’t know because I am not in the board to comment on this. Because I don’t know the reason. I read everything in the paper. I look forward. Oman is allowed to play but I don’t know how they have performed well than us after ACC Trophy. We were unlucky we lost a few crucial games, but we beat UAE, who are now in the semifinal of the InterContinental Cup. If they are talking about performance then we should go to Nairobi because we performed well than them.
All these discussion about who is playing the Asia Cup was raised in August last year and agreed upon in January. Were you informed about any of this?
No. Somebody told me in Bhairahawa that we are not playing in the Asia Cup. The papers have carried the news that says its because of performance. No, no, no way its because of performance because you can pick a team and say next year that team is going to perform bad.
What was your first reaction when you first heard about the news?
I was disappointed because we didn’t qualify for the world cup qualification tournament. Then I thought we had Asia Cup to play. Now all the dreams are gone. But still if we push hard and go through the correct channel, we could amend it.
Isn’t the ACC decision is an injustice to the players who played hard for the qualification to the Asia Cup and to Nepal?
Yes, definitely. Hong Kong were allowed to play after four years, so why the rule change now? Nepal, and Oman, too with UAE qualified to play Asia Cup, they should get chance to play. If ACC wants no overlapping they could say from next ACC Trophy that you would only qualify if the Asia Cup happened before the other ACC Trophy. If there is change in rule, they have to inform earlier.
Also financially, we, Nepal, are being deprived of a good sum of money.
What you have to say to ACC?
I hope they will rethink on this, especially after what happened in the last couple of weeks. We were believing that we would play in Asia Cup for four years, and when I read that it’s going to be held in February, I had started planning for this. But I still think we could do lobbying for our participation in the event.
Do you think the current committee is capable of pushing forward our case?
Yes, there are people with high contact in ACC, they could do a lot.