Kathmandu, May 22 :

The Nepali cricket team left for Malaysia on Monday to participate in the ACC U-15 Cup (Elite Group) starting from May 26.

Nepal is pitted against Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore in Group ‘A’ while Afghanistan, United Arab Emmiraes, Kuwait and Bahrain are in Group ‘B’. The top four will qualify for the next year’s tournament, while other four will be relegated for the junior level tournament.

Nepal, who won the under-15 tournament in UAE last year, will play against Malaysia on May 26-27 before taking on Hong Kong (May 29-30) and Singapore (June 1-2).

“We did not get enough time to practice the new version of the game as the selection process was marred,” said coach Roy Luke Dias, who recently signed a two-year contract with the CAN.

“The national tournament did not take place and the players brought to Kathmandu for the camp were not of the proper age and we we forced to select other fresh players,” he added. In earlier editions, the association used to select the top players from the national tournament. “All the kids are fresh and I will try my best to take the team at least to the semi-finals, so that we can play in the next edition,” he added.

SQUAD: Prithu Baskota (captain), Sagar Pun, Surendra Bahadur Chand, Santosh Bhatta, Akash Pariyar, Pradeep Ayer, Vivek Dali, Krishna Karki, Ayush Sharma, Binod Lama, Suvendu Pandey, Kabi Khadi, Rochak Bhatta and Prajesh Bahadur Singh, Roy Luke Dias (coach), Suresh Dutta Pandey (assistant coach), Basanta Raj Satyal (manager) and Chatur Bahadur Chand (assistant manager).