KATHMANDU: Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) on Thursday selected a final 14-member squad for the ACC Trophy Elite Cup Cricket Tournament scheduled for Kuwait from March 31 to April 9.

The CAN Selection Committee headed by Bijay Kumar Sharma have named Paras Khadka the skipper and Gyanendra Malla his deputy for the tournament. Others in squad include Binod Das, Shakta Prasad Gauchan, Mehboob Alam, Sanjam Regmi, Dipendra Chaudhari, Basanta Regmi, Mahesh Chhetri, Sharad Vesawkar, Anil Kumar Mandal, Rahul Kumar BK, Amrit Bhattarai and Binod Bhandari.

While Subash Khakurel, Pradeep Airee and Naresh Budhayer were named as reserves, Avay Rana, Prithu Baskota and Dhirendra Bahadur Chand were axed out from the 20-member team undergoing the closed camp training at the Tribhuvan University Stadium. CAN also named Roy Luke Dais the team coach, Suresh Dutta Pandey the assistant coach and Binod Kumar Mainali the manager.

Nepal are drawn in Group A with the defending champions Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuwait and Oman in the eighth edition of the tournament. Group B include the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Afghanistan, Malaysia, Bahrain and Bhutan.

Nepal finished fourth in 2008 after losing against the eventual finalist the UAE in semi-finals. Nepal’ best showing in the tournament was in 2002 when they reached the final.