Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has confirmed Nepal as the host for the ACC U-17 Elite Cup 2008 scheduled for November, Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) informed at a press meet on Tuesday.
“It was a crucial decision because Kuwait was also being considered,†CAN President Binaya Raj Pandey, who participated in the meeting of the ACC Development Committee last week in Pakistan, said. “Questions over facilities at our ground were raised but I assured them of improvement in facilities.â€
Bahrain, Bhutan, Brunei, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Nepal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and UAE will participate in the event initially scheduled for November 7 to 15, 2008. “The date might be pushed back on participating nation’s request,” Pandey added.
Pandey also informed that the next edition of ACC U-15 Elite Cup will be played between 12 teams after no teams were relegated after the fiasco that saw eight teams disqualified over age-verification. “ACC will develop a pre-tournament age-verification protocol within a month and no such event will happen in the future events during the tournament,†he added.
Pandey also said that CAN’s plans to ‘emphasise on playing with better teams’ is taking shape after nearing agreement with Bangladesh and positive response from Pakistan. “With Bangladesh, we are finalizing a three-year exchange program,†he said. “While Pakistan has proposed a program for junior, academy and A teams.â€
“I also talked with Sri Lankan cricket board president Arjuna Ranatunga, who said he will look into things for supporting Nepali cricket,†Pandey said adding that he was flying to Delhi on Friday to meet Arun Jaitley, a member of BCCI and the president of Delhi District Cricket Association, to look into possibilities of tour programs.
During the program, CAN General Secretary Tanka Paneru said that Bhaktapur would not host any matches of the upcoming Springwood One-Day National League Cricket Tournament. “Engineering Ground, which was initially unavailable, is now available, so it will host two matches scheduled for Bhaktapur,†he said.
Paneru also said that the total budget of the final round of the national league is estimated at Rs 1,050,653. “The players will be paid Rs 300 as daily allowance, a 50 per cent increment from the last year,†he said. CAN has also formed an organizing committee under Upendra Bhattarai and three committees for the event – technical (co-ordinator Naresh Shrestha), ground management (co-ordinator Binod Raj Rajbhandari) and press and publicity (co-ordinator Diwakar Ghale).
Meanwhile, Samson Jung Thapa and Raju Khadka left for Lahore, Pakistan for the ACC Level 2 Coaching Course scheduled for March 26-31, CAN said in a release.