None of the top performers in the U-16 National Cricket Tournament held in March in Kathmandu have been called for the closed camp training of ACC U-16 Elite Cup Cricket Tournament to be held from May 2 to 13 inMalaysia.
Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) on Sunday named 19 players for the camp but the list does not include Aquib Ali Ansari, Bhim Sarki and Iklakh Ahmed. Ansari was declared best batsman, Sarki the best bowler and Ahmed player of the series during U-16 National Tournament. But the players failed to pass the age verification test taken by CAN and Asian Cricket Council (ACC).
According to the CAN member Kiran Rana, the three failed the age test. “CAN has sent samples of 44 players for the first phase of verification, out of which the ACC has cleared 34 players.”
“CAN is planning to bring in new rules which will make it difficult for the players and their parents to hide the actual age of the players,” said Rana.
Four players each from Biratnagar and Birgunj and three each from Bhairahawa and Nepalgunj have been called to the camp. Two each from Baitadi and Janakpur and one fromKathmanduhave also been selected.
Lokesh Jha, Heman Rai, Kalicharan Yadav, Mukund Yadav of Biratnagar, Samsad Ansari, Alfaz Mansuri, Asif Sheikh, Nitesh Thakur of Birgunj, Noor Dhoj Sen, Rupesh Bastola, Kushal Bhurtel from Bhairahawa, Anup Neupane, Ajay Sahani, Aakash Bista from Nepalgunj, Jagadish Chand, Dipendra Chand from Baitadi, Rabin Gupta, Sashi Bhusan Mishra of Janakpur and Adil Khan from Kathmandu are those called to the camp.