After a decade of Dias´ successful term in Nepal, mainly in age-group tournaments, Cricket Association Nepal (CAN) appointed Tamata as the coach of U-19 team participating in the ACC tournaments to be held in Thailand from February 1 to 10.[break]
"I´m not taking pressure but I´m taking the upcoming tournament as a tough challenge. It´s also an opportunity for me to prove the caliber of a Nepali coach at the international level," said Tamata.
"Roy was a high profile cricketing personality; he was also a good coach. As his assistant I have learned a lot from him. I have been implementing 60 percent of his techniques to guide this U-19 team," he confessed.
Nepal have been ACC U-19 champions on four occasions. They have lifted the titles in 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007. They have qualified five times for the U-19 World Cup. However, the giant killers´ image of Nepal bit dust in the last edition of the ACC tournament as Afghanistan beat Nepal in the semifinal restricting them from qualifying for World Cup.
Former national cricketer Tamata wants to regain the glory at the upcoming tournament. "We have one and only goal in the tournament: win the trophy and qualify for the U-19 World Cup," said Tamata.
Tamata, who has done his cricket-coaching diploma from National Institute of Sports, Patiala, India, has a definite plan to win the trophy. "We will not take any match lightly. We have quality bowling attack and good depth in batting. Boys should perform in the given day and conditions," said Tamata.
Tamata started his coaching career in 1995 and had been looking after U-19 and national teams as an assistant to coach Dias. "I supervised U-19 squad in 2001 for 17 days as they were preparing for the same tournament. Since than, I had been working with different age-group and national squads as an assistant coach," said Tamata, who was an assistant to Dias when Nepal national team lifted ICC World Cricket League Division 5.
Tamata was a member of the first Nepali squad that participated in the international tournament in 1996. Nepal had participated in the ACC Trophy 1996 in Malaysia, its first international tournament. "I was in the closed camp in 1998 but could not make it into the team. I had quit the game in 2001 after playing national tournament in Rajbiraj," explained Tamata.
Sunoj Bhattarai was the first Nepali coach to lead Nepali team at the international level as he guided Nepali cricket team in the 1996 ACC Trophy, the tournament Tamata had played for Nepal. Bhattarai had also taken the charge of coaching for Youth Asia Cup 1999. Likewise, Arun Aryal has guided Nepal in Youth Asia Cup 1997, ACC Fast Track Countries 2005 and the 11th South Asian Games 2010.
However, the last decade of Nepali cricket saw Roy Dias looking after almost every team be it age-group or national. During his era, Tamata emerged as a prominent choice for supervising the national team. "It´s time to prove that Nepali coaches too can achieve success at an international level," Tamata gave his comment about the duty assigned to him.
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