Govt honours Div 3 champions

KATHMANDU, DEC 25 - The government on Wednesday honoured the national cricket team members who were part of the ICC World Cricket League Division 3 campaign with Rs 100,000 each.

Nepal had defended the Division 3 title on October 30 defeating Uganda by 62 runs in the final at the Kinrara Academy Oval in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Nepal had also defeated Uganda in the final of the Division 3 in Bermuda last year.

Skipper Paras Khadka, vice-captain Gyanendra Malla, Sharad Vesawkar, Subash Khakurel, Basanta Regmi, Shakti Gauchan, Naresh Budhayer, Aarif Sheikh, Bhuwan Karki, Sagar Pun, Sompal Kami, Amrit Bhattarai, Binod Bhandari, Mehboob Alam were the part of the team that won the Division 3 tournament–Nepal’s fourth ICC title.

Coach Pubudu Dassanayake, technical analyst Raman Shiwakoti, team physiotherapist Dinesh Bhatta were also given cash rewards. Youth and Sports Minister Purushottam Paudel, Secretary Dipendra Nath Sharma, Joint secretary Chudamani Poudel, the government-formed ad-hoc committee of the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) President Binay Raj Pandey and General Secretary Ramesh Silwal honoured the players and officials.

The government, however, missed to fete assistant coach Jagat Tamatta but joint secretary Poudel said it was a technical glitch. Poudel said the list of the 18 players and officials were sent without enlisting Tamatta by the suspended CAN. “He will soon be honoured,” said Poudel.

Division 3 team manager Deepak Saud–a member of the suspended committee of the CAN–was not honoured. The government had previously honoured the cricketers with Rs 350,000 when Nepal last won the Division 3 title in Bermuda.

Meanwhile, Minister Poudel informed that the government will reward the cricketers with one million rupees each if they win the Division 2 title in Namibia. Nepal are participating in Division 2 which will begin from January 17 to 24. Poudel informed that the decision to honour with one million rupees each has already been made in the recent Cabinet meeting. The government has honoured Nepali cricketers with one million rupees each when they qualified for their maiden ICC World Twenty20 in November last year. The award so far is the highest that the cricketers have received so far in terms of cash.