Das to conduct Under-19 selection
Kathmandu, August 9
Former national cricket team captain Binod Das has taken initiation to select youth players for next month's two events.
Nepal are scheduled to take part in the U-19 One Day Series in India and U-19 Asia Cup in Bangladesh. At a time when the Cricket Association of Nepal remains suspended from the International Cricket Council and the global cricket governing body - which has taken over control of Nepali cricket - yet to give approval to the India tour, Das started the preparation process.
Das, who had been given the responsibilities of the youth teams in the past, has prepared a schedule of programmes and sent to the ICC as well. “We are starting the process as it might take time to get approval from the ICC and we might fall short of preparation period,” said Das at a press meet. “If we get approval for the India series from the ICC, that will be the perfect platform for us to prepare for the Asia Cup,” added Das.
The One Day Series starts in Chennai on September 7 and features four teams - U-19 teams from Nepal, India and Afghanistan and India's National Cricket Academy. All four teams will play against each other in the league round with top making it to the final and bottom two competing in third-place playoff.
In U-19 Asia Cup, Nepal earned the automatic berth as the last edition's semi-finalists. The tournament will begin on September 27. Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates will participate in the event.
According to Das, the open trial is scheduled for August 13-15 at Velocity Arena. “We will select nine players from the open trial and include them with 14 cricketers from U-16 and three each from seven provinces in 44-member preliminary squad,” said Das. “We will then trim that squad down to 12 and seven players from U-19 team will join them in 19-member close camp.” Das said the ICC would make the final decision regarding all the preparations. “As of now I am the coach of U-19 team but ICC will take the final decision. I have asked young coaches to help me in the preparation and they are ready for that.”
