KATHMANDU: Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) have begun the preparation for the ACC Twenty20 Cup cricket tournament slated from November 22-30 in the UAE.

Nepal’s Sri Lankan coach Roy Luke Dias, who returned from his holiday on Friday, and Majnur Alam of Janakpur started the closed-camp training with 20 out of 23 called for the camp.

However, rain prevented the players from going to the grounds at TU Stadium on the first day. Instead, Dias took them for physical training at a gym at Satdobato. “It started raining as we set for the camp in the morning,” said Dias. “Most of the players look fit after the regional fitness camps,” he added.

Pushpa Thapa, Ajay Rajbanshi, Rajkumar Pradhan and Anil Mandal from Biratnagar, Binod Das, Sanjam Regmi and Anil Mandal from Birgunj are in the camp. Paras Khadka, Paresh Lohani, Sharad Vesawakar, Gyanendra Malla, Pramod Basnet and Dipendra Chaudhary represent Kathmandu, while Shakti Gauchan, Basanta Regmi, Rahul BK and Amrit Bhattarai are selected from Bhairahawa.

Likewise, Mahesh Chhetri and Anupam Singh from Nepalgunj and Binod Bhandari, Prem Budal, Chandra Saud and Naresh Budhayer from Baitadi are other to join the camp.

Nepal are in Group B along with Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Malaysia and Bahrain. Afghanistan, hosts UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and China are in Group ‘A’. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the semi-finals.

The CAN is also arranging a couple of practice matches for the Nepali team in Delhi. “The Delhi Cricket Association

has sent us the confirmation letter about the friendly matches. Now we will work out on the schedules and the number of matches,” said CAN President Binay Raj Pandey.

“We have a kind of agreement with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan and we are looking forward to have an exchange programme with India. I think it would be very difficult to develop cricket here without the help of India,” added Pandey.