Kathmandu, February 6

Nepal head coach Monty Desai said his philosophy in cricket journey was to create happy dressing room for positive future outcome.

Speaking at an interaction programme after receiving the appointment letter from Cricket Association of Nepal, Desai said he came to Nepal with a lot of purposes in his mind. 'I have been connected with Nepal cricket since 2012.

It's an honour and excitement to accept the head coach position,' said Desai, who arrived in Kathmandu on January 28 and started the training the following day. The formal announcement of the appointment was delayed after the National Sports Council took its time to approve the decision of the CAN.

Desai, who previously worked as batting consultant of Nepal, highlighted the need of happy dressing room. 'Only thing in my mind is happy dressing room and that's my coaching philosophy. I would like to build an environment, when we go forward in the next two years, we feel proud about the story that we will be building,' he said.

Asked about the team and poor batting records, Desai said the players had skills and they needed to convert them in matches. 'It's all about identifying how to bring the consistent performance on the field. It again comes down to understanding their strengths and how well they can execute them when they are challenged by their opposite skills in the game,' he said.

'It's a process. You do not expect everyone to perform immediately but at the same time, the more they get confident of their skills, the more they understand their roles and they understand values of how the team builds the scores. Once you put the plan in place and the players are clear about their roles, with the thought process which you are trying to educate as a whole management team together and of course me as a coach, I am pretty confident that results will come,' he added.

Regarding the inclusion of rape-accused former national team skipper Sandeep Lamichhane in the team, Desai said he was a part of the squad.

'I understand cricket and I have a very clear idea of cricket language. From day one till now, I can say a proper process has been followed. At the moment we have come down to a squad and obviously I am monitoring how the squad is shaping up. This is the present scenario of the squad and he is definitely in the squad,' said Desai.

A version of this article appears in the print on February 7, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.