Nepal have been boosted with a $A20,000 grant to promote cricket at the grass-roots level by the Australian government. “We will support school programs, women and disabled, like deaf and blind cricketers,” Binaya Raj Pandey, president of the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) told NepalCricket.com. “I hope that the support from the Australia continues.”
The Australian Ambassador to Nepal Graeme Lade said that he hoped that both grants would prove useful in advancing sporting capabilities in Nepal, especially in the areas of cricket and sport for people with disabilities. He also hoped that successful outcomes from these grants might hopefully lead to further grants.
The Australian government has been running the Sports Outreach Program, administered by the Australian Sports Commission, for a number of years, but until last year, it had essentially targeted Commonwealth countries.
Last year, the program was expanded beyond to include other countries, including Nepal.
Posted by: Arjun Chaudhuri at January 11, 2008 8:00 AM
Nepal has been putting up commendable performances in the cricket field for quite some time now. Their latest exploit has been winning the ACC U-15 Elite Cup 2007.
The grant from Australia, if properly utilized, as assured by the president of the Cricket Association of Nepal, should go a long way in assisting the country to take giant strides in cricket. Once there is adequate infrastructure and proper promotion of the game, people can be expected to get enthusiastic in not only following the game more but also taking it up as a career.
Posted by: Shafin at February 9, 2008 5:31 AM
The problem with Nepal is,their excellent age group performances were never translated into Top level success.I wonder where the players of their 2004 or 2006 U-19 tams have gone. However,I really hope these grants will help Nepal develop a better cricket culture.Ditto to the Aussies.
Posted by: classicX Sushil at February 29, 2008 7:44 AM
Seniors should be given opportunities more and Test playing countries should come to Nepal as it was in Malaysia last year
Posted by: Binod Karki at May 29, 2008 4:10 PM
First of all thanks to the Australian government for the grant. As we all know Nepal is one of the emerging nation in the context of world cricket. They have proved to be the giant killers in U- 19 cricket as they have beaten test nations like South Africa, Pakistan, New Zealand ,Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and had been a tough competitor to others. But it is a bitter truth that the seniors haven't stood up as juniors. This is because they don't have basic infrastructure in the country and the players cannot live just playing cricket. There is only an international ground and not even a good stadium where they can organize an event, how can they improve their game in this condition. So, i believe that this grant is just a starting to pour in Nepal which will surely be utilized in the development of infrastructure of cricket. Nepal has a lot of expectation from BCCI which is the richest cricket board and neighboring cricketing world. This can certainly increase the level of cricket in Nepal.
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