KATHMANDU, Jan 30: South African cricket legend Jonty Rhodes has been appointed as the ‘Goodwill Ambassador’ for the third season of the Dhangadhi Premier League (DPL) starting February 9 in Dhangadhi. 

The 49-year-old is also appointed as ‘Mentor’ for DPL franchise CYC Attariya for this season of the tournament which will be played at the Fapla International Cricket Ground. 

Similarly, Attariya has also appointed former West Indies and Afghanistan coach Ryan Maron as its head coach for the tournament. 

Subhash Shahi, chairman of the Dhangadhi Cricket Academy (DCA), who is also the organizer of the DPL, said that they talked about his involvement when the South African legend last came to Nepal in November last year. 

“When he came to Nepal for coaching, we talked about how he could get involved in the tournament. We met in Pokhara and also had an official meeting to see how he can help the tournament,” Shahi added, “He wants to promote cricket in Nepal. He helped the school kids in November and wants to do it further.”

CYC Attariya, a DPL outfit, also announced Rhodes as its mentor for the tournament. The team is supported by Sports ED, which played a major role in the appointment. 

Shahi said Rhodes, who is set to help two parties in the tournament, is free of any conflict of interest and his duties won’t overlap each other.  

“There will be no conflict of interest. There will be no such problems because Rhodes won’t be in the organizing committee and he will only mentor Attariya,” Shahi said, “We want him to help promote the DPL outside the boundaries of the tournament.” 

The pair had last come to Nepal for a 10-day high-performance coaching camp to select few young players at the TU cricket ground, which was organized by Sports ED and Nepal Cricket School (NCS). 

Both Rhodes and Maron were impressed by the level of competence and intensity showed by the young Nepali players five days into the camp. 

Rhodes made 5,935 runs and 2,532 runs in ODI and Test matches, respectively. His legendary career came to reckoning after a diving run-out of Inzamam-ul-Haq during the 1992 ICC World Cup. He retired from cricket after an inopportune finger-fracture early in the 2003 World Cup, although he went to play a successful final farewell season in county cricket for Gloucestershire.

 
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