Indian generosity aids Nepal's ambition

Help Nepal: Donate here

The road that Nepal was to have travelled to secure its place in next year’s World T20 ahead of so many international cricket hopefuls twisted and crumbled beneath its feet in the space of just under two terror-filled minutes on April 25.

A people whose passion for, knowledge of and patriotic attachment to the game is surpassed only by its Test-playing Asian neighbours were about to embark on the most significant step of their cricket journey when a massive earthquake reduced it – and much of the mountain nation – to dust.

Feature: Nepal's spirit dented, but not broken

But such is the resilience of the human spirit, and so important is cricket to Nepal’s sense of self and its pride of place in the global community, that just six weeks after the quake and with around three million of Nepal’s population of 30 million still homeless, that faltering trek has been resumed.

Thanks to the generosity of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the ambition that has driven Nepali cricket for the past two years – to qualify once more for the ICC’s biennial World T20 tournament – resumes in the sub-Himalayan Indian city of Dharamsala this week.

That is where Nepal’s 22-man cricket squad, all of whom survived the quake with no more than cursory injuries but deep emotional scars, have convened for a training camp in preparation for July’s three-week World T20 qualifying tournament in the entirely foreign conditions of Ireland and Scotland.

True to the mountain-conquering pedigree that is Nepal’s other globally recognised sporting trait, they have scaled this peak before.

In the 2013 qualifying event held in the UAE – from which the top six teams would secure berths at the following year’s ICC World T20 in Bangladesh – Nepal finished third in their group ahead of one-time World Cup semi-finalist Kenya and 2015 World Cup combatant Scotland.

In the play-offs, Nepal accounted for Hong Kong before losing heavily to Afghanistan (the latest poster boy for ICC Associate and Affiliate cricket) but then rallied to defeat another 2015 World Cup competitor the UAE to reach a top-level international tournament for the first time.

Despite an impressive win over Afghanistan in the group stages of that World T20 event, Nepal finished second behind host nation Bangladesh and therefore did not progress to the Super 10 phase of that event ultimately won by Sri Lanka.

But they did receive T20 international status from the ICC for their efforts.

For a team built on canny spinners and innovative if wristy batsmen, the prospects of qualifying once more on seam-friendly pitches in Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh and Stirling were always going to present a challenge.

But no current international player could begin to countenance how much more difficult that assignment has become as the reverberations of the quake that killed around 9,000 people and rendered almost twice as many injured continue to be felt.

Sompal Kami, barely 18 when he took the new ball for Nepal when they appeared on the big stage for the first time at last year’s World T20, made it safely from his fifth-floor apartment in Kathmandu when the quake hit, having helped two pregnant neighbours from floors below out into the street.

He then lived in a nearby tent city that also served as a water gathering location for his community, which meant the ground on which he slept was often damp and he would wake in the morning so stiff and sore he was barely able to walk.

Promising young batsman Manoj Pandit was not so fortunate and tragically lost his life, while former under-19 ‘keeper-batsman Suhash Pradhan was pulled from rubble in Kathmandu with significant injuries including a badly dislocated right hip.

As the global relief effort began and hundreds of thousands huddled in tent cities, traumatised by each of the more than 50 aftershocks that have rocked Nepal since April 25, the cricketers clearly saw their crucial role in aiding a crippled nation desperately needing reassuring signs of normality.

Paras Khadka, the hugely talented allrounder who is tipped by many to become the first Nepali player to secure an IPL contract, was in Australia where he was looking to learn from meetings with local cricketers in preparation for the World T20 qualifiers when the earthquake hit.

Image Id: ~/media/371C16A3D4EF4D2ABF3CBE8F35F1A757

Gifted Nepal allrounder Paras Khadka // Getty Images

The 27-year-old, who follows much-loved and long-serving skipper Binod Das as Nepal’s new captain, immediately turned his planned meetings in northern Australia into fundraising activities and enlisted donations of around $US30,000 that have been used directly for urgently needed food and water.

He faces an even sterner task to galvanise a squad that was finalised in the days after the earthquake and which will spend 15 days in India before undertaking a series of warm-up matches against the host nation in Holland, where Netherlands Cricket has also been raising funds.

“You can’t stop living your life because of a tragedy,” Khadka said recently.

“Cricket may be just a part of life but over the last three years it has become a very significant part of Nepal.

“Some of our fans are as passionate as the fans in India.

“Cricket is just one of those things that helps you realise that life will go on.

“It is tough to get over the tragedy that we have suffered, but now it is important for us to just think about bat and ball.

“Like everyone else back home, it is very important for us to get back to normal life.

“Two weeks here in Dharamsala will help us a long way in doing that.”

Nepal’s Sri Lankan-born coach Pubudu Dassanayake echoed that message prior to his squad’s arrival in India where former Indian Test spinner Venkatapathi Raju and Rajasthan Royals assistant coach Monty Desai are expected to provide them with expert insights.

“We made history by making a maiden appearance in the World Twenty20 last year but reaching there again will have a greater significance this time,” Dassanayake told The Kathmandu Post.

“We have seen the devastation caused by the earthquake and how people are trying to get back to their feet.

“The country has been in a state of mourning and qualifying for the World Twenty20 is the best thing we could do for the entire nation.”

But even a resources-rich, fully fledged Test-playing nation would find the logistics and the mental rebuilding required to tackle such a crucial, competitive exercise in such a compressed time frame daunting in the extreme.

For a developing, devastated nation to be even contemplating such a climb gives hope and heart to those world-weary cynics who decry the increasing imbalance of professional sport in favour of the rich and powerful.

Nepal’s middle-order batsman Sharad Vesawkar, a star of the recent Phillip Hughes Tribute Match in Kathmandu where he plundered a 53-ball half century, exemplifies the travails that so many of his teammates have needed to overcome.

Desperate to maintain his cricket fitness as the earthquake recovery continued, he took time out for a run through the capital’s debris-strewn streets only to twist his ankle so severely he was unable to flee his house when a 7.3 magnitude aftershock rattled Nepal on May 12.

Vesawkar has since been recovering in India, where his teammates will all need to travel to be issued with visas to travel to the United Kingdom for the T20 qualifying tournament given the UK consulate in Kathmandu sustained earthquake damage and has not re-opened for business.

Kathmandu’s only national-standard cricket ‘stadium’ – the bucolic, earthen-banked venue that lies within the grounds of the city’s Tribhuvan University – sustained such damage in the series of earthquakes that Nepal’s only two suitable turf pitches have been rendered unusable.

The ground’s sprawling, open-sided shed that served as the sole indoor practice facility in Kathmandu is structurally unsound, as are the changerooms and facilities that hosted international players at the Phillip Hughes Tribute Match less than three weeks before the first quake hit.

The terraces on which spectators crammed that festive day, sheltering from the early summer sun under umbrellas, have been reduced to piles of loose bricks.

And the Cricket Association of Nepal’s (CAN) proposed domestic World Cricket League competition that was to follow the T20 qualifiers has been cancelled.

Nepal was also scheduled to host qualifying matches later this year for the 2016 Under-19 World Cup in recognition of its strong recent performances, but CAN now faces a race against time and nature to be ready for the event.

Image Id: ~/media/0DC81170AC6F48818C88AE064A4F7C93

CA chairman Wally Edwards was present for the Phillip Hughes tribute match in Nepal // Getty Images

It’s one of the reasons why Cricket Australia (CA) chairman Wally Edwards has identified direct help to rebuild the cricket infrastructure damaged by the quake as a means by which CA can contribute to the massive rebuild.

“From an Australian cricket point of view we’re going to do some fundraising and try and rebuild or build on their new cricket ground,” Edwards told cricket.com.au.

“They have a new cricket ground planned - the one we played on (for the Hughes Tribute Match) was the university cricket ground.

“(So we hope) to build something for them to replace because their little pavilion that they had, all that’s gone and their indoor cricket nets they had are all gone.

“We want to raise money and try and actually funnel it to rebuilding something on their cricket ground that will last and be there as a gift from Australia and Australia cricket.”

The Association’s recently appointed Chief Executive Bhawana Ghimire knows that to bemoan the ill luck foisted upon the game that has gained such a foothold with Nepalese people would be myopic and insensitive at a time when so many of those people are in mourning and out of work and home.

“The whole country has been affected, so we did not assess the toll it (the earthquake) has taken on our industry,” Ghimire told ‘Cricket Country’ website recently.

“Our facilities, pavilions, grounds, academy and buildings have certainly (been) affected.

“(But) we have been engaged with relief distribution and we will be actively participating in rebuilding process to rehabilitation and well-being.

“We will be playing more benefit matches and fund-raising matches for at least two years to support the rebuilding process. 

“We have to convert this turbulent time into a rebuilding opportunity.

“These are tough times for us, but cricket will continue to grow in Nepal.”

Although Edwards is in his final year as Chairman of CA, he continues to champion the rise of associate and affiliate nations through the ICC’s development structure.

He is also hopeful, despite the huge job of re-assembling Nepal’s cricket facilities and competitions, that the Phillip Hughes Tribute Match will return as an annual event staged in Kathmandu, with an even stronger Australian representation in years to come.

“For the sake of World Cricket we need new nations coming up and achieving,” he said.

“I think we have a role and certainly my final stages of my job here as Chairman I intend to take a proactive role there.

“I’m currently trying to put a program together to bring the Nepalese team to train with the WACA before the start of our season just as another linkage.

“Given the earthquake and assuming things settle down by next April (2016), I think it would be a fantastic thing (to hold the Hughes Tribute Match each year).

“We had four Australian cricketers playing (last April) but the rest were Nepalese (that made up) the red team and as it turned out the red team won on the last ball of the match.

“I said (at the time) that next year we want to have a blue team playing (against) a yellow team so I will be trying very hard to get us a yellow team (of Australian past and current players) into Nepal next April.”

While India has led the cricket world’s response to Nepal’s crisis with direct, pragmatic assistance, CAN and the Malaysian Cricket Association have agreed to stage a ‘Bat for Nepal’ charity match at Selangor (near Kuala Lumpur) on August 9.

Sri Lankan World Cup heroes Sanath Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama have already indicated their willingness to take part, and it is hoped other high profile former or current players from around the world will follow suit.

By that time, the proposed World XI might find themselves taking on a Nepal team that can boast it has qualified for a second consecutive ICC World T20 event.

Against the most unimaginable odds.