Kathmandu, January 2

Nepali national blind cricket team on Tuesday left for Pakistan to take part  in the fifth Blind Cricket World Cup to be hosted by Pakistan and  the United Arab Emirates from January 7-21.

State Minister for Youth and Sports Teju Lal Chaudhary and national team coach Jagat Tamatta bade farewell to the team, which left for Pakistan by train. Cricket  Association of Blind, Nepal President Pawan Ghimire said the team had to travel by bus and train due to the lack of budget.

Co-hosts  Pakistan, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Australia and Bangladesh will  compete in the round robin format tournament. The Nepali team is taking part in the limited overs World Cup for the first time. They had earlier featured in the Twenty20 Blind World Cup.

Nepal  will take on Bangladesh in their opening match on January 8 before  facing defending champions India the following day. Nepal will play  their third match against Pakistan on January 10, Australia on January  13 and Sri Lanka two days later.

Kirtan Shrestha Duwal will lead the Nepali team in the World Cup, while Bikram Bahadur Rana is the vice-captain. Sunil  Subedi Chhetri, Naresh Chaudhary, Durga Dutta Paudel, Bharat  Chaulagain, Surya Prasad Bhattarai, Sunil Rana, Khimananda Gaire, Badri  Chaulagain, Padam Bahadur Badela, Ramesh Bahadur Baniya, Bharat Thapa  and Sunil Thapa Magar are the other players in the team.

CAB-Nepal President Ghimire,  Vice-president Amrit Baral along with team coach Rijan Praju, team manager Parbat Raj Bista and four other officials accompanied the players to Pakistan.