By Manoranjan Sharma (Bhairahawa)
Cricket has been included in the festival called 6th National Games and teams from all the development regions are participating. But women’s team of Western Region is special, for it has 7 players coming from the same school.
And the school’s name is Apex School from Shankarnagar VDC, in Rupandehi district.
Indu Verma
Pratikshya Bashyal
The team captain, Indu Verma is a Class 8 student, while her teammate Pratikshya Basyal is in Class 9 at the same school. Both the girls were part of the U-19 Nepali team that won ACC U-19 Women’s cricket championship. Likewise, Alisha KC, Prabina Khadka, Sonia Paudel are batch mates in Class 8 in the same school and part of the Western Region team. Their teammate Nitu Bhandari is in Class 9 and another teammate Sudha Thapa is in Class 11.
Alisha Kc
All these players are considered capable of being in the first XI of the team. Their alma mater, Apex School has suddenly become a subject of discussion, having contributing as many as 7 players to a regional team. And it’s been only two years that the school started providing cricket facilities. Needless to say, the school’s girls team is the regional champion and provides almost entire squad to the Bhairahawa team that plays national championship. All the members of the group of lucky 7 live around Shankarnagar VDC.
Pravina Khadka
Nitu Bhandari
Cricket became really popular in the school once they appointed former Nepali international Basanta Shahi as its cricket coach. And it’s the girls who outshone boys as far as cricket is considered. Shahi said that the girls have really worked hard over past couple of years.
Soniya Poudel
Sudha Thapa
School coordinator Roshan Pokhrel said that the parents of girl students are now happy. Earlier, they were against the idea of teaching cricket to girls. Whatever be the result of Western Region team in the nationals may go to records, but this school has already made a name for becoming a cricketer factory in the area.