Nepal is preparing for the ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifiers to be held in Ireland from July 28 to August 9. [break]
The qualifying tournament is played by top two countries of each of the five ICC regions. Among them, the top six teams will qualify from the round-robin event to join Test countries in the U-19 World Cup scheduled to be held in Australia in 2012.
“The overall training is going good and the players are enjoying it,” said Jagat Tamata, coach of the Nepali team.
Captain Prithu Baskota agreed with his coach and said they are all set to chase their dream of qualifying for the World Cup. “With closed camp training, we are seeing improvements everyday. We are getting tougher physically and mentally,” said Baskota. “We have been working to improve in every department of the game,” he added.
Nepali U-19 team finished as the runner-up of the ACC U-19 Elite Cup held in Thailand last February losing against Afghanistan in the final. Nepal had also played a warm up series against Bangladesh before participating in that tournament. This time Nepali U-19 team does not have practice matches of that level.
“In the first phase of the training we played a few matches against Nepal APF Club and a Delhi based Indian Academy. We also have played some matches among ourselves,” said Tamata.
Nepal will play its one-off warm up match against Namibia on July 26 in Ireland.
The Nepali team is training everyday in Kathmandu at a temperature of around 32 degrees Celsius but the temperature will be at around 18 degrees in Ireland. “Sometimes we train the boys early in the morning when the temperature in Kathmandu resembles that of Ireland,” said coach Tamata.
Nepal has slow wickets but very often wickets in the European countries are bouncy and full of grass, and Nepali players will have a hard time adapting to the conditions and environment. “Our boys are good at adjusting and I´m hopeful they will score runs, take wickets and win matches in all conditions,” said Tamata.
“We know that the wickets in Ireland will be fast and we are mentally prepared to adjust to such conditions,” said skipper Baskota. “We are trying to play quick shots on bowling machine to tackle Ireland´s bouncy wickets,” he added.
Despite all the challenges, Nepali youth have set their focus on qualifying for the world cup first and then fighting for the title.
“This World Cup could be the last U-19 tournament for many players of the squad if we qualify form Ireland. We all have a dream of playing World Cup and I´m hopeful we´ll succeed,” said Baskota.
Nepal is to take on Afghanistan on July 28 in the opening match of the tournament which will also see the participation of the US, Canada, Namibia, Kenya, Scotland, Ireland, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.
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