Year 2009 was a year that would be remembered for the failures more than success; Year 2010 is a crucial year that could become the best year of Nepali cricket – or the worst ever.
Nepal began 2009 with splendid victory in the ACC U-17 Elite Cup – the only age-group tournament that the country had previously not won. Five victories in five matches at the home ground in front of thousands of cheering crowd was spectacular morale booster.
The February event was followed by U-19 Nationals that Birgunj won and MCC tour to Nepal which Nepal dominated. The global coverage of the Twenty20 played at the Gorakh Shep, near Everest Basecamp – though we were not much involved – gave an international limelight.
The limelight that soon faded out as Nepal failed to qualify for the Youth World Cup for the first time since 1997. Hong Kong beat Nepal ending the eight-year unbeaten streak and Afghanistan defeated the three-time defending champions to push it out of the global event.
Under Gyanendra Malla, Nepal beat Qatar to finish third but that did nothing good.
The third-position syndrome continued in July where the girls finished third after Hong Kong beat Nepal in the semifinals of the ACC Women’s T20 just after Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) established the Twenty20 nationals for men that Kathmandu won.
The year ended in a yet another failing note as Nepal finished fifth in the ACC T20 with Paras Khadka leading the team after a long stint by Binod Das, who despite losing the captaincy earned a beautiful daughter in December.
Year 2009 should also be remembered for the Raju Basnet’s retirement and loss of long-time cricket serving official Shashi Dutta Pandey. Also sadly, leg-spinner Raj Kumar Pradhan left the team to leave for foreign employment during the closed-camp training.
The year of failure also brought some spectacular performance from players: Rubina Chhetri’s miracle last over against Singapore where she took five wickets and gave away a run to end the match on tie and Binod Bhandari’s six of last ball to tie a match against Kuwait.
Year 2010 has at least five events scheduled – with a crucial one.
Nepal will be competing in the South Asian Games, Asian Games, ACC U-16 Elite Cup, World Cricket League Division 5 and ACC Women’s Championship.
The most crucial of those is WCL Div 5 – both on the field and off the field. On the field, because Nepal needs to reach the finals of the event to keep the road open for the 2015 World Cup qualification. Off the field because it’s the first ICC event Nepal is hosting and it would be a real test of Nepal’s hosting power.
If Nepal reaches the final, it will also play WCL Div 4 in June.
ACC Trophy Elite will also be important – not because Nepal had never won the ACC Trophy or for Nepal has a new captain, but because reaching the finals may open a way to compete in at least a couple of One-Day Internationals.
ACC U-16 Elite will be in Kathmandu and a real chance for Nepal to win while title-defense at the women’s will not be very easy. SAG and Asiad are for experience and hope for upset victory!