Kathmandu, June 24:

Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) announced the 18-member squad to prepare for the upcoming ACC Women’s Cricket Tournament to be held in Malaysia next month.

The players — who will be kept under closed camp from June 29 in Kathmandu — were selected from the recently held first Women’s Selection Cricket Tournament, CAN

said. The 18-member team includes eight players from Nepalgunj, four from Bhairahawa and three each from Kathmandu and Baitadi.

The players are Nairy Thapa, Manisha Rawal, Mamata Thapa, Samjhana Sharma, Binu Budha Magar, Keshari Chaudhary, Trishna Singh and Sita Rana from Nepalgunj, Nira Rajopadhyaya, Radhika Thapa and Samikshya Aryal from Kathmandu, Madhu Thapa, Saraswati Lamgade, Susmita Chaudhary and Nitu Thapa from Bhairahawa and Janaki Bhatta, Maya Rawat and Ritu Kanaujiya from Baitadi.

The final 14 players for the ACC tournament will be selected later. Nepal is drawn in Group A along with Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand. Bangladesh, China, Singapore and UAE are in Group B.

Nepal will play against Thailand on July 12, before playing back to back matches against Malaysia (July 14) and Hong Kong (July 15).

Meanwhile, CAN said that its president Binay Raj Pandey left for London to attend the International Cricket Council (ICC) meeting slated for June 24-29.

Also, seven players and coach Roy Dias left for India to take part in the ACC High Performance Programme. The players are skipper Binod Das, Shakti Gauchan, Paresh Lohani, Paras Khadka, Sharad Vesawkar, Dipendra Chaudhary and Mehboob Alam. Seven players and a coach each from the seven Asian nations, who will play World Cricket League in 2008, will take part in the programme.