According to CAN President Tanka Angbuhang, the governing body of Nepali cricket has signed a deal with the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) for friendly tours. CAN"s former advisor Aamir Akthar and CAN member Sanjeev Pandey had accompanied Angbuhang to New Delhi last week to strike the deal with the provincial cricket team of India. [break]
“We have officially started to establish ties with provincial teams of India,” said Angbuhang.
“We have signed a deal with Delhi and have also forwarded a similar draft deal to the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA). They haven"t approved it yet citing busy schedule,” he added.
Angbuhang believes the recent deal with the provincial team will help strengthen Nepal"s ties with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
The Nepali delegation had met DDCA President Arun Jaitley and MPCA President Jyotiraditya Scindia during last week"s tour.
Organizing a press conference in Kathmandu on Monday, CAN said it had appointed prominent Indian cricket personality Amrit Mathur as Nepal"s international consultant and Akhtar as the national consultant during the India visit.
CAN has also formed a seven-member committee with Angbuhang as coordinator to chart out the programs for friendly tours of neighboring countries as part of its preparations for the World Cup Qualifiers. CAN member Purna Lama has been appointed the manager of the “High Performance Tour”.
As per the agreement with the DDCA, Nepali national cricket team will travel to Delhi for a friendly series from October 20 to early November. Nepal will play seven to 10 matches during the tour.
According to Akhtar, Nepal will play against the leading cricket teams of Delhi.
Besides the friendlies, Nepali players will also get an opportunity to play in the tournaments organized by the DDCA.
CAN has arranged the tour as part of its preparations for the T20 World Cup Qualifiers to be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in November.
Meanwhile, Nepal will play practice matches against the teams of any two countries among India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh ahead of the next year"s ICC World Cup Qualifiers, which will be held in New Zealand, according to CAN member Sanjeev Pandey.
CAN said it is also planning to bring Australian coach Chris Harris for the Nepali team"s World Cup preparations. Besides, four Sri Lankan fast bowlers will be coming to Nepal for a month as part of the "High Performance Program".
The total budget of the "High Performance Program" has been estimated at US$ 250,000. The International Cricket Council (ICC) will provide US$ 175,000 to Nepal for the World Cup preparations. CAN said it will ask the National Sports Council to provide the shortfall amount.
Asked about the ICC"s decision to slap a fine of Rs 10 million on CAN for not presenting its financial report on time, Angbuhang said that the fiasco happened because the ICC opened the mail sent by CAN two months later. Angbuhang said that the ICC has already apologized to CAN for the mistake but has remained silent about the fine.
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