PM Cup Men’s National Cricket kicks off today among 10 teams

By A Staff Reporter, Kathmandu, Jan. 13: The PM Cup Men’s National Cricket Tournament is starting on Saturday across three venues, including one outside the Kathmandu Valley, between 10 teams.

Other than the Kathmandu-based Tribhuvan University Cricket Ground and Mulpani International Cricket Ground, Bhairahawa Cricket Ground in Rupandehi district will be hosting the tournament participated by seven provincial teams and three departmental teams.

The opening day will see the matches between Bagmati and Nepal Police, Koshi and Madhes, and Lumbini and Gandaki at TU Cricket Ground, Mulpani Cricket Ground and Bhairahawa Cricket Ground respectively.

The provincial teams conducted district-level competitions to select players for a 14-men team to represent the respective province. More than half of the teams participating in the tournament have also revealed their squads.

Moreover, provincial teams lacked national-level players as the majority of them have been tied up with the three departmental teams – Nepal Police, APF and Nepali Army. 

Nevertheless, only Nepal Police had announced their squads until Friday evening; APF’s captain and coach have only been disclosed.

Men’s national team captain Rohit Paudel has returned to captain the APF team in the tournament with former national cricketer Gyanendra Malla as the coach. Paudel was in APF’s squad in 2018, he then moved to Army. Other members of the squad have not been disclosed publicly yet.

On the other hand, Dipendra Singh Airee is captaining the squad of Nepal Police being coached by Manjit Shrestha. Aarif Sheikh, Karan KC, Kushal Bhurtel, Arjun Saud, Dilip Nath, Amit Shrestha, Sunil Dhamala, Lalit Rajbanshi, Sagar Dhakal, Shankar Rana, Rashid Khan, Lalit Bhandari and Roshand Budhal are in Police’s team.Similarly, five provincial teams made public their squads until Friday evening. 

Ankit Subedi is captaining the team of Koshi Province coached by Pushpa Thapa. Koshi’s players include Phirdos Ansari, Sonu Ansari, Minas Thapa, Ice Bhattarai, Sujan Thapaliya, Suman Gahatraj, Samir Karki, Sonu Mandal, Kamal Khatri, Heman Rai, Bhupal Luitel, Abhiyas Timsina, Saujan Ghimire. Dipak Raj Joshi, Bhupal Dangol, Saugat Bhattarai and Aswin Kamat are in reserve.

Madhes Province has decided to allow Hari Shankar Sah to lead the provincial squad with Sunil Sah as the coach. Other players in the team are Niraj Yadav, Anil Kumar Sah, Pawan Sarraf, Abhishek Tiwari, Arniko Yadav, Rahul Mandal, Bishal Patel, Ranjit Kumar, Rupesh Singh, Samsad Ansari, Pradip Paswan and Rajesh Yadav. Dablu Malik, Bhulwan Sahani, Parthiv Yadav and Sahil Patel are in reserve. 

As per the Bagmati Province Cricket Association, Rit Gautam is captaining the side with Kalam Ali as the coach. Bagmati’s teams comprise of Aashutosh Ghiraiya, Ishan Pandey, Rabin Joshi, Bibek Rana Magar, Pratik Shrestha, Pratish GC, Surya Tamang, Krijan Gurung, Rijan Dhakal, Gautam KC, Ashok Paudel, Sonu Devkota and Bipin Acharya. Sandesh Karki, Gaurav Khadka, Dipesh Shrestha and Krish Karki are in reerve. 

Gandaki Province Cricket Association gave the captaincy of the team being coached by Rijan Prajoo to Bipin Khatri. With Sameer Kandel as the vice-captain, Ishwor Chhetri, Muskan Thapa Magar, Roshan Gautam, Krish Ayer, Ashwini Rana Magar, Kamal Pariyar, Amrit Gurung, Krishna Poudel, Karan Pangeni, Sandeep Parajuli, Chandrakanta Poudel and Ankit Neupane. Arjun Rayamajhi, Dinesh Budha Magar, Govinda BK and Tulsiram Bhandari are in reserve. 

Lumbini Province Cricket Association has also made public a 14-men squad after concerns from Banke Cricket Association. Banke Cricket Association, on January 8, had shown reservations to the list of players called for closed camp citing only three of its players were selected for the provincial team despite the district winning the selection tournament.

Nevertheless, Lumbini’s team was disclosed on Friday. As per Lumbini Province Cricket Association, Sushant Singh Thapa of Banke is captaining its side with Basant Shahi as the coach. Other players in the team are Prajwal Bahadur Thapa, Birat Bhandari, Krishna Karki, Samrat Bhusal, Mrinal Gurung, Dilsad Ali, Nar Bahadur Sarki, Nirmal Gurung, Rahul Chauhan, Abhisekh Gautam, Mohammad Hussain, Bir Bahadur Gharti Magar and Ikhlaque Ahmad. Bishnu Katariya, Rupesh Bashyal, Mohan Khatri and Hemant Acharya are in reserve. 

Karnali announced its 20-men team for closed camp on January 4. The team’s main squad was not announced until 6:30 pm on Friday. There was also no update regarding the team of Sudurpahschim Province.