ICC World Cricket League Division 3 champion Nepali national team received a warm welcome upon its arrival back home on Wednesday.
Hundreds of cricket fan reached TribhuwanInternationalAirport and joined four-hour long victory parade chanting slogans to celebrate the highest achievement of Nepali cricket so far.
Youth and Sports Ministry and National Sports Council (NSC) organized a program to felicitate the team at the NSC premises after the parade. Youth and Sports Minister Ram Kumar Shrestha, Secretary at the Ministry Hari Prasad Nepal, NSC Vice President Pitambar Timalsina and Member Secretary Yuvaraj Lama offered tika, garlands and letter of appreciation to the team.
Chairman of Council of Minister, Khilaraj Regmi, called on the players at the Prime Minister’s Office, Singh Durbar in the afternoon and felicitated the national heroes. During the program, Regmi informed cricketers that government has already decided to reward the cricketers with Rs 3,50,000 each.
Meanwhile, UCPN (Maoist) and its Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal felicitated cricketers at the party headquarters at Peris Danda with cash reward of Rs 25,000 each from the party fund.
Nepali team lifted the Division 3 trophy beating Uganda by five wickets in the final on Sunday. Nepali team arrived in Kathmandu on Wednesday at 9:30 AM.
Skipper speaks
Nepali skipper Paras Khadka said that the team was overwhelmed by the public reception. He also urged authorities to put coordinated effort to develop cricket to prepare for the World Cup Qualifiers. “We are playing both World T20 Qualifiers and World Cup Qualifiers in next eight months. We should start preparation from now. It’s high time to invest on cricket,” said skipper Khadka.
“We’ll not get better opportunities than this. We players are ready to work hard and authorities should support us,” he added.
Khadka credited coach Pubudu Dassanayake behind the success. Dassanayake did not come with the team as he went to Canada to meet his family.
Authorities vow to support
Chairman of the Council of Minister Regmi congratulated Nepali teams and vowed to support cricket development programs from the government side. “Whatever the players have achieved at the international level despite having only limited facilities is invaluable,” said Regmi. “It’s high time to develop infrastructures for cricket and to make cricket professional, where a players can live only by playing cricket,” added Regmi. He suggested Youth and Sports Ministry, NSC and Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) to come up with concreate programs.
He also asked CAN to start preparation for the World Cup Qualifiers scheduled to be held in New Zealand in January 2014. “The government will consider all the positive plans and programs initiated by NSC and the association seriously and provide full support to execute them,” said Regmi.
Earlier, Youth and Sports Minister Shrestha vowed to construct a cricket stadium of international standard at Mulpani, Kathmandu while NSC Member Secretary Lama said that the council would lobby for the construction of the stadium.
CAN President Tanka Aangbuhang requested government to keep cricket in the high priority. “We would be soon known as a cricketing nation but what we need is support from government,” said Aangbuhang.
Meanwhile, UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Dahal said that he would discuss recent success of Nepali cricket within the high-level political committee and suggest government to support cricket in infrastructure development and preparation for the qualifiers.
No time for lunch
Following long journey from Bermuda to Kathmandu with three transits, Nepali cricketers were tired and sleepless. Felicitation programs one after another made them feel more tired.
Because of the tight schedule of programs, they did not get chance to have lunch. The CAN even failed to manage lunch packets for them. “It’s difficult to listen authorities and leaders with empty stomach though they are talking positives,” a cricketer commented.