Kathmandu, March 24:

The Merylebone Cricket Club (MCC) team skipper and former England Test player Minal Mahesh Patel said his team was impressed by the standard of Nepali cricket.

“We find the boys here very impressive and were also impressed by the standard of cricket in Nepal,” said Patel, who played two Test matches for England in 1996 — both against India. “They have some stuff to learn about the game but the players are technically very good,” Patel said of the Nepali cricketers.

A 16-member MCC team is currently in Kathmandu on its Nepal tour. The MCC tours four countries in every year. “We go to the places where cricket is developing and our mission is to promote cricket in those countries,” he said. “We try to help the cricket develop by playing friendly matches and by organising coaching camps.”

Before coming here, the MCC team had toured Mozambique. The team will now tour Croatia, Indonesia and Japan. “We take the opportunity of touring different places as honour and reward from the MCC,” said the left-arm spinner, who is popularly known as Min Patel.

He also said the local boys were full of enthusiasm during matches and the spectators very supportive. “Couple of hundreds of spectators turned out to watch the matches and we found them very supportive,” said the Indian-born cricketer, who played county cricket for Kent.

Regarding the training to the junior players, Patel said the coaching was all about skills. “It’s nothing complicated. It’s all about skill developing,” he said. “Apart from general training on fielding, batting and bowling, we also teach them some drill,” he added. The team conducted training in Bhaktapur on Sunday and at the TU Stadium on Tuesday.

Asked about the next MCC tour to Kathmandu, Patel said it would take a minimum of five years to get the turn. “As we have to cover lots of countries, we will be coming back to Nepal at the next available opportunity and that might be after five or six years,” he said. Last time, the MCC team had toured Nepal in 2003.

MCC Team: Min Patel (captain), Matt Walker, Nishel Patel, James Evans, Neil Jones, Keith Newell, Ian Fletcher, Keith Parsons, JM Finch, Mark Dale, Peter King, Glen Read, Luke O’Reilly. Lt Col ATP Lerwill (manager), Colin Megennis (umpire), RE Arnold (scorer).