Nepal will play its last encounter of the ACC Fast Track Countries Tournament 2005 at TU Cricket Ground against Malaysia with a hope of a victory from Friday.
Binod Das will lead the home side while Suresh Navaratnam will be his Malaysian counterpart.
So far Malaysia is at the top of the table of the five-nation event with 70.5 points while Nepal is at third position with 57.5 behind UAE who have 70 points with a game in hand against Singapore (25-17 Nov ’05). The top three teams qualify for the next year’s ICC InterContinental Cup.
So far, Nepal and Malaysia have met twice in three-day version of game. Nepal won the first one played in TU Cricket Ground by 9 wickets on April last year while drew the other one played in Malaysia in September.
Malaysia will be empowered with the services of Arul Vivasvan Suppiah. Arul Suppiah, 22, made his first-class debut for the Somerset county in 2002. He is the only known Malaysian to have played any county cricket.
Malaysia Squad: Suresh Navaratnam (captain), Rakesh Madhavan, Manrick Singh Varick Singh, Eszrafiq Ab. Azis, Suhan Kumar Alagaratnam, Shankar Retinam, Mohd Anwar Arudin, Mohd Shukri Abd Rahim, M. Muniandy, M. Krishnamurthi, S. Muthuraman, Rohan Selvaratnam, Rohan Vishnu Suppiah, Arul Vivasvan Suppiah, V. Subramaniam – physio, Clarence Samuel – manager and Michael John Bailey – coach
Nepal Squad: Binod Das (captain), Shakti Gauchan, Paresh Lohani, Paras Khadka, Sarad Veswakar, Mehboob Alam, Raju Basnet, Raj Kumar Pradhan, Kaniska Chaugai, Dhirendra Chand, Manoj Katuwal, Sanjam Regmi, Gyanendra Malla, Avaya Rana, Roy Dias (coach).