Just as the ICC World T20 qualifiers is around the corner, eight corporate houses have declared to provide a monthly allowances of Rs 15,000 to each member of the Team Nepal for two years, just before its departure to UAE, if it makes it to the World T20.
Nepali Team left for UAE for the tournament that begins this Friday.
Seven corporate houses – Ace Travels, HH Bajaj and Company, Mega Bank, F1 Soft Privated Limited, VOITH Group, Goldstar Shoes and Unilever Nepal Limited — have declared to provide monthly allowance to two members each of the national team while King College have agreed to sponosor one player. The deal will be effective from the very first month after the team qualifies for World Cup.
Besides this, Suraj Vaidhya of VOITH Group declared to provide a Toyota car to a best player of the squad if the team makes it to World Cup finals. Recalling that the company has already gifted cars to footballers Upendra Man Sing and Hari Khadka and taekwondo player Sangina Baidhya, President of FNCCI Vaidhya made such declaration.
Similarly, Pradip Kumar Shrestha, the former president of Federation of Nepal Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI) and Manish Jha of NYEF gave away Rs 100,000 each to the cricekt team. Shrestha handed over the cash to skipper Paras Khadka and Jhan to vice captain Gyanendra Malla.
Manoj Pandey of Global Visa Consultancy declared to provide Rs 25,000 each to a best player of Nepali team in the every group stage match of Qualifiers.
Ranjit Acharya, the CEO of Prisma Advertising took the initiative to unite the corporate houses and motivate cricket team ahead of the Qualifiers.
The players were picked after lucky draw in which Basanta Regmi and Mahesh Chhetri were drawn to Ace Travels, Sarad Vesawakar and Anil Mandal to HH Bajaj and Company, Subash Khakurel and Amrit Bhattarai to Mega Bank, Pradeep Airee and Avinash Karna to F1 Soft Private Limited for the monthly allowances. Similarly, Paras Khadka and Jitendra Mukhiya to VOITH Group, Gyanendra Malla and Rahul BK to Goldstar Shoes, Shakti Gauchan and Binod Bhandari to Unilever Nepal and Sagar Pun to Kings College.
Optmistic of making into finals, Skipper Khadka said that they were only a step farther from playing the World Cup. “We are geared up and just a step further from playing the World Cup. It has been our childhood dream to play the World Cup,” Khadka said.
Speaking on the occasion, industrialist Pradeep Kumar Shrestha said that the response private sector had shown to cricket team was a great encouragement. He also assured of more rewards once the cricket team returns home after qualification.
“Once you return home I will give you better than what you have expected,” Shrestha said.
Shekhar Golchha of HH Bajaj and Company expressed satisfaction for getting chance to attach with the cricket team. Golchha said that the entire country was hopeful that cricket could bring happiness to the nation at a time while the country was going through tough time.
Motivating the cricket team, Anil Shah of Mega Bank said that he was confident that the team would make it to World Cup finals but not sure if constitution will come or not this time as well.
Nepali team coached by Sri Lankan Pubudu Dassanayake has been pitted alongside with Afghanistan, Scotland, The Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Kenya, Bermuda and Denmark in group B. Nepal will open its campaign taking on Denmark on Friday.
Group A consists of Ireland, Canada, Namibia, Hong Kong, UAE, Uganda, USA and Italy. Top six teams of Qualifiers will play in the World T20 to be held on 2014.