KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 12

Nepal national cricket team head coach Manoj Prabhakar today returned to India after ending the contract on mutual understanding with Cricket Association of Nepal.

The former Indian all-rounder, Prabhakar was appointed in August after Canadian coach Pubudu Dassanayake resigned from the post citing personal issues. Dassanayake's resignation came after a series of poor results from the national team, which was visibly divided into two groups following the appointment of Sandeep Lamichhane as the team skipper.

Prabhakar's appointment was expected to unite the team in a bid to protect One Day International status. But the national team suffered more under Prabhakar and Nepal languish at the sixth position among seven nations in the ICC Cricket World Cup League-II table and are in danger of relegation.

Prabhakar, who was hired for a year, had asked for time to get the team settled after taking the charge. But the former Indian allrounder - who played 130 ODIs and 39 Test matches as a player and had the experience of working with various teams in India - failed to find answers within the team and Nepal's batting woes continued despite the coach rotating players in every other match.

CAN President Chatur Bahadur Chand said the decision was taken on mutual understanding after the team failed to get desired results.

'The coach could deliver what we needed and we decided to end the contract,' said Chand.

'The team is also in disarray in batting order and bowling as well.

He took total control of the team and still failed to give results,' he added. 'Basically it's because of the poor performance of the team but there were other elements which need to be corrected in the days to come,' said Chand.

A version of this article appears in the print on December 13, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.