Everest Premier League: The trendsetter

KATHMANDU, Dec 26: The completion of Everest Premier League on December 22 marked another chapter in Nepal’s cricket history.

It was believed that a final match between Lalitpur Patriots and Bhairahawa Gladiators will lack the charm to attract the same number of spectators as in matches with Paras Khadka, Sandeep Lamichhane or Karan KC on board.

But thousands of fans reached the TU Cricket Ground in Kirtipur to witness the historic final. Evidently, Nepali cricket fans valued some quality sporting event.

Approximately 20,000 fans enjoyed the EPL final on Saturday that the Patriots, led by Gyanendra Malla, won defeating Sharad Vesawkar-led Gladiators.

Kathmandu is not the only city where the premier league happens. Several ‘premier leagues’ have emerged at various cities and towns of Nepal including the latest Pokhara Premier League which came closest to the quality maintained by EPL.

All of a sudden, everyone seems to be hosting a franchise-owned T20 event in Nepal irrespective of whether the players, chosen through auctions or direct signings, are being paid handsomely or miserly.

The leagues in Rupandehi, Karnali, Banke, Sarlahi, and Rautahat are among the events that have made it to the local news recently.

This comes at a time when the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) is under suspension from the International Cricket Council (ICC). There is no authority at the moment to make the quality check or make sure that integrity is not compromised. Nepal has attracted a controversial international event, Asian Premier League (APL), to be hosted in the TU Cricket Ground. The league was described as ‘disapproved’ by the ICC. Cricket Players Association of Nepal had released a letter of no participation at the unsanctioned cricketing event.

The recent EPL, the biggest cricket event of Nepal so far, got approval from the ICC well ahead on time, avoiding the hassle it had to face last year.

EPL has been the first ICC-sanctioned event of Nepal which has opened unimaginable possibilities within the country and set a trend -- a necessary one -- to keep the sanctity of cricket in the absence of CAN.

The organizers have to pay the ICC US$ 20,000 (more than Rs 2,000,000) for EPL’s approval each year.

EPL has opened the doors for recognizable foreign players to get No Objection Certificate (NOC) from their boards and participate in the premier event. Players from Sri Lanka (Farveez Maharoof and Akshu Fernando), Pakistan (Asif Ali, Israrullah and Taj Wali)), India (Punit Bisht, Praveen Gupta, etc), Hong Kong (Babar Hayat and Anshuman Rath) came and traded their skills under the mountains of Nepal last season. The quality of the event extended a notch up with the arrival of world-class players like John Simpson (England), George Scott (England), Paul Coughlin (England), Richard Levi (South Africa), Kyle Coetzer (Scotland), Roelof van der Merwe(the Netherlands), Ryan ten Doeschate (the Netherlands), Paul Stirling (Ireland), Kevin O’Brien (Ireland), Rohan Mustafa (the UAE), and Muhammad Naveed (the UAE) in Kathmandu.

Besides EPL, Dhangadhi Premier League (DPL) and Pokhara Premier League (PPL) have also followed the same setup, got ICC approval, and hosted foreign players.

EPL has been setting trends all along -- firstly, the league itself being a grand event, secondly due to involvement of franchise owners, then due to ICC approval, and lastly with the inclusion of foreign players.

The EPL’s managing director Aamir Akhtar said that they have a plan from the very beginning for gradual progress and development of a domestic league into an international event.

“You need to have vision. Year 2016 was all about domestic scene, 2017 was about international flavor, and 2018 was about capitalizing what we did in 2017. Every year we need to graduate. I never believed in the short-cut. It won’t happen anywhere in the world. We have a plan and it is working as expected,” Akhtar said.

For the first time in Nepal, foreign commentators were hired to be part of broadcasting that saw drastic improvement in live telecasting of the sport events. Irish commentator Andrew Leonard, Sri Lankan Farveez Maharoof, New Zealand current woman international cricketer Frances Mackay and Indian sports broadcaster Navneetha Krishna entertained the television viewers during live domestic matches. Leonard even felt honored spending magical two weeks in Nepal and experiencing the love and passion for the sports in person.