Dhangadhi, April 6

The Sagarmatha Cement Dhangadhi Premier League is all set for April 9 kick off with Nepal national team facing Dhangadhi-XI in the charity match at the SSP cricket grounds.

The organisers, Dhangadhi Cricket Academy and SPA College informed they were done with all the preparations for the tournament that features six franchise-based teams. The organisers have dedicated the tournament to late coach Arjun Khadka.

Tournament coordinator and President of DCA, Subash Shahi said the tournament aims at creating a cricketing atmosphere in the country and create pressure to the government for the construction of international-standard Fapla Stadium. The DPL was created by merging SPA Cup and Dhangadhi Cricket League, both organised by DCA. “As Dhangadhi has been declared as the City of Cricket, we will not leave any stone unturned to make DPL a grand success,” said Shahi. “We have prepared a parapet for around 3,000 spectators apart from international-standard size of the ground.”

National team skipper Paras Khadka will lead Team Chauraha Dhangadhi, while Gyanendra Malla is the captain of CYC Attariya. Sharad Vesawkar is Biratnagar Kings’ skipper, whereas Basant Regmi will lead Kathmandu Goldens. Shakti Gauchan is the captain of the Rupandehi Challengers and Binod Bhandari will lead Kanchanpur Iconic.

The skippers were picked by the team owners for Rs 100,000 each, while other members of the team were bought through the national-level auction or 217 players. The six teams will play against each other in league round with top four teams making it to the playoff round.

Out of the total cash purse of Rs 2.8 million, top two teams will receive Rs 1.5 million and Rs 700,000 respectively. Man-of-the-match in every game will receive Rs 10,000, while the player-of-the-series will get a TVS RTR 200 Apache motorcycle. The estimated budget of the tournament is Rs 10.6m.

According to Shahi, the 20 per cent of gate collection will be donated for the education of coach Khadka’s children, while 15 per cent each will be handed over to Dream Fapla Project and participating teams.