Seven corporate houses -- Ace Travels, HH Bajaj and Company, Mega Bank, F1 Soft Private Limited, VOITH Group, Goldstar Shoes and Unilever Nepal Limited -- have pledged to provide monthly allowance to two members each of the national team while King´s College has agreed to sponsor one player. The deal will be effective from the very first month if the team qualifies for the World Cup.[break]
Meanwhile, Suraj Vaidhya of VOITH Group declared that they would give a Toyota car to the best player of the squad if the team reaches the World Cup finals. He made the announcement saying the company had gifted cars to footballers Upendra Man Singh and Hari Khadka, and taekwondo player Sangina Baidya in the past.
Similarly, Pradip Kumar Shrestha, former president of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), and Manish Jha of NYEF gave away Rs 100,000 each to the cricket team. Shrestha handed over the cash to skipper Paras Khadka and Jha to vice-captain Gyanendra Malla.
Manoj Pandey of Global Visa Consultancy declared Rs 25,000 to the best player of the Nepali team in every group match of the qualifiers.
Ranjit Acharya, CEO of Prisma Advertising, took the initiative to bring the corporate houses together.
Ace Travels will provide monthly allowances to Basanta Regmi and Mahesh Chhetri, HH Bajaj and Company to Sarad Vesawkar and Anil Mandal, Mega Bank to Subash Khakurel and Amrit Bhattarai, and F1 Soft Private Limited to Pradeep Airee and Avinash Karna. Similarly, Paras Khadka and Jitendra Mukhiya will get monthly allowances from VOITH Group, Gyanendra Malla and Rahul BK from Goldstar Shoes, Shakti Gauchan and Binod Bhandari from Unilever Nepal and Sagar Pun from King´s College.
Skipper Khadka said they were only a step away from playing the World Cup. "We are pretty geared up and just a step away 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 the private sector´s incentives to the 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 a chance to be associated with the cricket team. Golchha said the entire country was hopeful that cricket could bring happiness to the nation.
Anil Shah of Mega Bank expressed confidence that the team would make it to the World Cup finals.
The Nepali team led by Sri Lankan coach Pubudu Dassanayake has been drawn alongside Afghanistan, Scotland, The Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Kenya, Bermuda and Denmark in Group B of the qualifiers. Nepal will open its campaign against Denmark on Friday. Group A consists of Ireland, Canada, Namibia, Hong Kong, the UAE, Uganda, Italy and the USA. The top six teams of the qualifiers will secure berths in the finals to be held in 2014.
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