The National One-Day Cricket Tournament will be played under a new name in 2008, Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) announced on Tuesday.
The inter-region event will be called Springwood One-Day National Cricket Tournament as the sponsor of senior national event and team Surya Nepal Pvt Ltd decided to promote the new apparel brand through cricket. Last year, the event was played as Shikhar One-Day National Cricket Tournament.
CAN also announced the cut-off dates for the district and regional level selection events for the national championship. “The district level competitions will be completed by February 15, while the regional level competitions will be completed by March 15,” CAN president Binaya Raj Pandey informed.
CAN had also decided to cancel last year’s two-day national championship in which seven out of 15 scheduled matches were completed. “Due to various reasons it will not continue. But this year onwards, it will be played as a year-round tournament with regions settling the dates of matches,” he said.
The national championship, to be held after March 15, will help senior players to prepare for the upcoming two events of 2008. The national team will participate in the ICC World Cricket League Division 5 in Jersey from May 23-31 and ACC Trophy in Malaysia in July this year. The WCL Div 5 is the last division tournament of the World Cup 2011 qualifier with the finalists going through to Division 4 – to be played in Tanzania in October.
The finalists of Div 4 qualify for the Div 3 and the finalists of Div 3 will qualify for the World Cup Qualifier. If Nepal can reach finals of Div 5, Div 4 and Div 3 and then finished top six among 12, it will qualify for the World Cup 2011.
“The cricket results have been exceptionally well, and I hope Nepal will play World Cup soon,” Samindra Roy of Surya Nepal said. “We are proud to be associated with cricket.”
Meanwhile, CAN is also trying to arrange matches with Indian or Pakistani teams for exposure to the national team. “Nepal will play a match with Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), England, en route to Jersey,” Pandey added.
Standard Chartered Bank is also trying to bring in teams from Sri Lanka and India that are sponsored by the bank to play with Nepali teams, Pandey added.