We also have a budding cricket team, who have been mostly pulling off stellar performances in the lower-age groups. Now, if only our national cricket team could play against world class team. And if only our national cricket team could play them here at home, we would no longer be a nation of cricket fans limited to watching the matches on the idiot box.
But things may soon be changing for the better, thanks to a plan that kills all these birds with one stone.
After more than a decade of plans drawn up, shot down, revived, and shot down again, Nepal has finally taken the first steps to having its own international cricket academy. The first phase of this project will see the building of a pavilion and a stadium at Mulpani, in Kathmandu. And no less than the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Cricket Australia may back the project in the future. In accordance with the current deal on the table, the government of Nepal and the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) have pooled in funds for the first phase of the project: the Nepali government has contributed Rs 10 million and the ACC has already pitched in Rs. 5 million. The structures in the academy will be built by Lama Construction, who won the Rs 14.75 million bid on the project.
Although things look sunny now, the project´s history has been anything but. The Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) had in 1988 submitted a proposal in Lahore, Pakistan, to the ICC, asking for the ICC´s help in building an international cricket academy in Nepal. The ICC accepted the proposal two years later; but various disputes inside CAN halted the project. The ICC later downsized the academy from an international academy to a regional academy. But even that watered-down plan could not see the light of day because Cricket Australia, Nepal´s consultant for developing the academy, pulled out from the project.
But this time around, all the parties are more optimistic about the project´s fulfilling its aims. And that´s extremely good news for the Nepali cricket players and the Nepali cricket fans. If the project goes according to plan, Nepali cricketers will get to finally train in almost-world-class premises. And the fans may finally get to watch world class teams competing right in our very own Nepal.
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