National Cricket Academy (NCA) has provided full scholarship at the higher secondary level to 28 talented youth cricketers following completion of its talent hunt program for SLC-appeared students.
NCA, set up on the initiative of national team coach Pubudu Dassanayake, made such announcement on Saturday upon completion of the 40-day training camp for youth players. Altogether 58 players had participated in the SLC training camp that started on April 21. Golden Gate, Himalayan Whitehouse and Xavier International have agreed to provide full scholarship to the players.
NCA made the announcement during the closing ceremony of the talent hunt program for SLC students as well as U-12 school cricket at the NCA building at TU ground, Kirtipur on Saturday.
´The promising SLC-appeared players have been awarded scholarship and we will later select 18 players from among them for the NCA youth squad,´ said Binod Das, former skipper of the national team and one of the coaches at NCA.
During the camp, the SLC-appeared students were providing regular training in cricketing skills as well as physical fitness, swimming and art of living.
According to NCA, it has also requested the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) to allow the NCA youth team to compete in various age-level regional tournaments and CAN was positive on the proposal.
´NCA had organized the talent hunt keeping in view the upcoming ACC U-16 tournament. The date for the tournament is yet to be fixed and we will prepare the players accordingly.´
Similarly, the U-12 School Cricket talent hunt program saw participation of 500 cricketers from various schools. The U-12 training had started on February 19.
From among the young cricketers, 33 have been picked for the NCA U-12 talent pool. According to Das, the selected players will be provided cricket training from next season. The U-12 training camp was conducted on Saturdays.
´The U-12 training was a grand success and the participation was much higher than our expectations. Soon after the rainy season is over, we are planning to shortlist 20 players from among the 33 players, ´ said Das.
CAN President Tanka Angbuhang, General Secretary Ashok Nath Pyakurel, among others, distributed certificates to the participants of the training on the occasion.