Gorkha Brewery Pvt Ltd has signed an agreement with Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) for an annual national league cricket tournament to begin here from Friday. The signing ceremony was in a press conference organised by the Gorkha Brewery.

According to the agreement signed by the president of CAN, Jay Kumar Nath Shah and Director of strategy and planning of Gorkha Brewery Pvt Ltd Rabindra Man Shrestha, the Gorkha Brewery will be giving the CAN Rs 700,000 every year for three years in order to organise the Birendra Memorial National League Cricket Tournament. Shrestha handed over the cheque of Rs 700,000 to Binay Raj Pandey, honorary secretary of the CAN.

The sponsorship is likely to keep increasing over the years. As per the agreement, Gorkha Brewery will also sponsor all expenses pertaining to outfit the national team, tournament’s trophy and publicity expenses for the tournament. The Gorkha Brewery will also provide the dress for the national team with its logo.

The first tournament starting May 7 will feature five teams—one each from all the five Cricket Regions of the country. The teams to participate in the tournament will be selected from regional selection tournaments.

Participating five teams will play four matches each in the league round and top two teams will contest in the final which will be held on May 18. All the matches of the tournament will be held at Tribhuvan University ground, Kirtipur.

“The tournament not only will help in selecting players for the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Trophy Cricket Tournament to be held in Singapore from July 10 but also in overall development of cricket in the country,” said president of CAN Shah.

Secretary Pandey, briefing the structure and format of the tournament, said that the tournament is first for Nepali cricketers. “The league format is being played for the first time in Nepal and we are sure that this will help cricketers improve,” said Pandey.

“The organisers and sponsors believe that the national league tournament will further enhance both the quality of the sport and players in Nepal,” said a press note.