Great Himalayan Dream: 15 Nepal cricketers and their 30 million fans
Indian cricketer Priyank Panchal spent a month in Kathmandu last year, and came back with one memory that has stayed with him. It wasn’t the thrill of playing in front of a packed stadium but the easy warmth of a cricket-mad nation. Nestled in the Himalayas, the country breathes the game but with a smile instead of the all-consuming passion that defines cricket fandoms in the
sub-continent. “Every player I met, every official I encountered and all the fans I came across greeted me with a lot of warmth and a big smile. No one raises their voice. The passion for cricket and the love for their stars is so genuine,” Panchal, the former India A captain told PTI about his stint in the second edition of the Nepal Premier League with the Karnali Yaks franchise.
A nation of over 3 crore will place its hopes on 15 cricketers when Nepal walk into the Wankhede Stadium on February 8 for their lung-opener against England after a second successive T20 World Cup qualification. They would be carrying the weight of Himalayan dreams, hoping to be bolstered by the support of an adoring fan base that
has turned every match into a festival. For a team that once struggled for basic infrastructure, the upcoming T20 World Cup is being viewed as a defining leap rather than just another appearance. Nepalese fans are expected to throng Chennai for the warm-up games and for the tournament-proper in Mumbai when Rohit Paudel and his men take the field.
“I have heard that ticket sales for Nepal’s matches at the Wankhede Stadium have been very brisk. Had we played in Delhi, there would have been a sizeable crowd at Kotla too. “Our fans, the biggest number of travelling ones after India and Pakistan, are our strength,” said Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) president Chatur Bahadur Chand, who is also a senior politician representing the Nepali Congress party.
The Nepal team looks gutsy with skipper Paudel one of their batting mainstays. Then there is veteran Karan KC, Sompal Kami and the biggest of them all — Sandeep Lamichhane — the only player from the region to have featured in the IPL, Big Bash League and the Caribbean Premier League.
