Paresh Lohani, Nepal’s most successful batsman has pulled out of the ICC World Cricket League Division 5 training citing personal reasons.
Paresh, 30, informed Cricket Association of Nepal about his inability to participate in the six-nation event to be held in Kathmandu from February 20-30.
“I can not attend the closed-camp training due to my personal reasons and I don’t think it’s fair to contend for a position in the national team without training,” Paresh told Cricket Nepal on phone. “So I decided to pull out.”
The closed-camp training began on January 3.
Paresh is the leading run-scorer for the country in one-day and multi-day internationals. He has scored 824 runs in 15 multi-day matches with two centuries – both against Singapore in 2005.
With 811 runs in 44 one-day international matches for the country, the opener is atop the list of Nepali batsman.
At national level, he made his name scoring back-to-back centuries in bowling dominated Jai Trophy national league in 2000 and 2002 for Kathmandu. In the inter-region Birendra Memorial National League, which replaced inter-district Jai Trophy, he is second on the list behind Mehboob Alam.
The Kathmanduite debuted in 2000 ACC Trophy in UAE. Paresh has also had a brief stint as a captain leading Nepal against Hong Kong in a three-day match in 2005.
Meanwhile, CAN has asked Sharad Vesawkar to submit a health report for considering him for the closed-camp training. Earlier, he was excluded from the team of 18 for his ‘poor health and form’.