Nepal hope to make it three in a row

Kathmandu, November 7:

Crown Prince Paras inaugurates the 15-team tournament

Crown Prince Paras inaugurated the U-19 Asian cricket Council (ACC) Cup Cricket Tournament, where Nepal hope to complete a hat-trick after winning both the editions in Kathmandu in 2001 and Karachi (2003).

At a special function organised by Cricket Association of Nepal at TU, Crown Prince Paras opened the tournament. “I hereby declare open the ACC U-19 Cup Cricket Tournament 2005, Kathmandu,” said Crown Prince Paras, who is also the patron of National Sports Council.

RK Mainali, president of the main organising committee and Minister for Education and Sports, and Jai Kumar Nath Shah, vice president of the main organising committee, president of CAN and vice president of ACC, also expressed their views. Students from various schools and cultural groups presented dances to amuse the guests.

The third edition of the tournament is being participated in by 15 non-Test playing nations, except Bhutan. The teams are divided into four pools and Nepal is in Group A along with Bahrain and Brunei.

The top two teams from all the four pools will advance to the quarter-finals, slated for November 16. The semi-finals will be played on November 17 and the final will be held at TU on November 19.

Nepal will open their campaign with a match against Bahrain on Tuesday at TU Stadium, and will play against Brunei on Wednesday at Tundikhel. Except the TU Stadium, CAN has prepared three new venues for the event — Tundikhel ground, Institute of Engineering (IoE) in Pulchowk and Birendra Sainik Awasiya Mahavidyalaya (BSAM) in Bhaktapur.

“I cannot say anything about Bahrain as we have never played against them in the Under-19 level,” said Nepal’s coach Roy Luke Dias. “But we hope to defend the title without much trouble,” he added.

Asked about the openers, the Sri Lankan coach, who completed his fifth year in Nepal this month, said that skipper Kanishka Chaugain and Yeshwant Subedi would open the batting, as they did in last year’s edition held in Pakistan in 2003.

“We will decide whether to bat or bowl first only after looking the conditions tomorrow morning,” added Dias. He also said that he was yet to decide the opening bowlers. “We will decide everything tomorrow morning but I have got three bowlers who can open — Antim Thapa, Bantu Bataju and Avay Rana,” he said.

Skipper Chaugain, who is among the four players who played in both the previous editions, said that he was hopeful of the team. “We will play good cricket and try to beat the opponents with ease,” he said. Chaugain’s opening partner Yeshwant Subedi, Prem Chaudhary and Basanta Regmi are the other members who played in both the previous editions.

Of the 14-member squad, Avay Rana remains the lone cricketer without international experience. He was included in the national team for the three-day match under the ACC Fast Track Countries Tournament against Malaysia but did not get the opportunity to show his talents.

Squads

NEPAL: Kanishka Chaugai (captain) Mahesh Chhetri (wicketkeeper), Paras Khadka (vice captain), Basant Regmi, Gyanendra Malla, Raj Shrestha, Sharad Vesawkar, Ratan Rauniyar, Yashwant Subedi, Prem Chaudhary, Bantu Bataju, Shashi Kesari, Abhaya Rana, Amrit Bhattarai, Roy Luke Dias (coach), Shankar Kumar Rana (assistant coach), Pradeep Kumar kari (manager).

AFGHANISTAN: Jawid Ahamadi, Sajed Khan, Izatullah Khan, Hashmatullah Rabin, Murad Ali, Samallah Muheb, M Basir Wali Zada, M Khaled Hussain, Asghar Hussain Hotak, M Shah Turkman, M Kaif Sadiqi, Aftab Alam, Gulbudeen Naib, Aimal Wafa, Taj Malik Alam (coach), Abdul Khan Baig (manager), Raees Ahmadzi (physio).

Bahrain: Noaman Ikram, Karan Kumar, Zarak Ahmed, Sundeep Sen, Shiraz Mehmood, Gayan

Desilva, Niraj Mukhia, Mohd Ashan Imtiyas, Atif Ashfaq, Rashid Mir, Salman Sattar, Jaber Mohamed, Mohd Danish Jasnaik, Gautam K Kumar, Mohd Hamed Sadeq (manager), Faustina B Arulvasagam (coach), Zulfiqar Ahmed (physio).

Brunei: Mueed Ozair Mian, Muhammad Mamduh Hagi Yusop, Muhamed Shefeer Shereef, Ahmad Rahimi Hj Badar, Syed Ali Ahsan, Rajeev Jaya Kumar, Ali Yousuf Sani, Mohamed Safrizan Morsidi, Sadheesh Rathnayake, Arafat Mahbub, Rory Effendi Yahkup, Akib Mustafa Mian, Ayesh Rathnayake, Harin Jason Liyanage, Surya Thapa (manager), Noor Alam Khan (coach), Lim Ting Sam (physio).

Hong Kong: Moazzam Ayub, Robert Alexander Bacon, Irfan Ahmed, Nazim Khuram Shahzad, Gary Ian Brierly, Nadeem Ahmed Shakeel, Sajid Mehmood, Mohammad Zafaran Ali, Zuiad Khan, James John Atkinson, Courtney Keith Kruger, Nicholas Yue Fai Lau, Steve Atkinson (manager), Lal Jayasinghe (coach), Jenny Hochstetter (physio).

Iran: Abdol Ghafar Bejarzehi, Shoeyb Khorsand, Naser Raisi, Ali Asghar Chashten, Afzal Raysy, Aref Balooch, Mansour Raeisi, Sajed Gholami, Sajed Balouch, Abdul Bahab Ebrahim Pour, Sajed Raeisi, Ali Reza Shatrang, Aref Raisi, Ramazan Tabezar, Hossein Ali

Salimian (manager), Heidar Moieni (coach), Yahya Sheikhi (assistant coach), Hossein Alizadeh (physio).

Kuwait: Mudasser Salim, Abdul Rehman, Aatif Mazher, Mubasshir Khalid, Hmza Arif, Ali Shehzad, Sibtain Raza, Muzammil Khalid, Habibullah Iftikhar, Milinda

Dushmantha, Yaser Idres, Ali Raza, Umar Salahuddin, Naser Shaoukat, M M Asad Baig (manager), Arjuna Amaratunge (coach), Emad Al Jassam (physio).

Malaysia: Eszrafiq Abd Aziz, Manrick Singh, Mohd Shukri Abd Rahim, Rosman Zakaria, Suhan Kumar Alagaratnam, Faris Almas, Lee Rosmanizam, Sarath Ananthasivam, Mohd Shafiq Mohd Sharif, Maxwell Stephen Bala, Mahyudin Mansor, Mohd Kasman Mohd Kedari, Darvin Muralitharan, Shanmugam Nanthagobabo, Mohd Ariffin Ramly, Mohammad Iqbal Ali Kassim Ali (manager), John Bailey (coach), V Subramaniam (physio).

Maldives: Ahmed Umar Jamaal, Jilwaz Rashid, Mohammad Mahafooz, Abdullah Saudan Ibrahim, Ahmed Hassan Sobir, Ibrahim Iujaz Hafiz, Shafraz Jaleel, Mohamed Sajan, Ahmed Nazal Nazim, Hassan Aflam, Mihusan Hamid, Hussain Adnan, Hussain Riyaz, Hassan Ibrahim, Ahmed Ishaq (manager), Mohamed Aflah (coach), Abdullah Imad Ismail (physio).

Oman: Ahmed Al Balushi (captain), Ali Bilal, Vivek Venkataram (vice captain), Jibran Yousuf, Abbas Murtadha, Mohammad Imran, Rashad Al Balushi, Bilal Javed, Rafeeq Al Balushi, Ansar Raza Ansari, Santo Antony, Sajit Kumar, Pranav Mehta (wk), Mustaq Syed, Madhu Sampat (manager), Rusl Surti (coach), Khalid Abdul Qadir (assistant manager), Dr M V Manjunath (physio).

Qatar: Qamar Sadiq (captain), Tamoor Sajjad, Zaheer ud din Ibrahim (vice captain), Khalid Sher Azeem, Faisal Noor, Jasdeep Singh, Hassan Ahmad Ali, Mohammad Tahir, Omar Arshad, Deon Britto, Ibrahim Zahoor, Mohammad Faiz Khan, Kamran Khan, Fahim Sajjad (wk), Gul Mohammad Khan Jadoon (manager), K Aruna De Silva (coach), Shamsuddin Ali Khadas (physio).

Saudi Arabia: Shuaib Ali, Hasnain Bukhari, Imran Nasir, Patel Sajid, Saad Khan, Hasnat Ahmed, Salman Jabbar, Afzan Riaz, Shahzad Anwar, Usmal Ali, Mohammad Ali Hanif,

Hassan Malik, Abdullah Ayub, Ijaz Sagheer, Gulnar Baig Mirza (manager), Hamid Rasheed (coach).

Singapore: Christopher Zanik (captain), Mayank Dalakoti, Mohd Noor E Adnaan, Peter Muruthi, Jackie Manoj, Shiva Subramaniam Vasanth, James Muruthi, B Vignesh, Jayanth Ganapathy, Prem Dalani, Rizwan Madakia, Rohan Tripathi, Shafees Altaff, Smithpal Singh,

Sarika Siva Prasad (coach), Swee Heng Goh (physio/trainer).

Thailand: John Paul Hottinger, Deepak Saraff, Sunil Nalinvilawan, Ajay Saraff, Nopphon Senamontree, Darshil Shah, Rittiphan Hanpee, Ashish Malani, Jirayu Inthajak,

Akshay Kumar Desai, Nishadh Thomas Rego, Sahand Ranamukharaachchi, Saad Akber, Adharsh Mukharjee, Mohideen A Kader (manager), Thiti Kader (coach).

UAE: Abdul Rehman (captain), Obaid Hameed, Sharan Kumar, Kaizad Jehangir Anklesaria, Rameez Shahzad, Owais Ali, Vivek Raji Thomas, Owais Hamid, Shoib Sarwar, Fawad Syed Muhammad, Oassim Zubair, Wasim Bari, Shehan Dharmasena, Pranab Arora, Abdul Razzak Kazim (manager), Mohd Hyder Kazmi (coach), Sudhaker Chitrala (physio).