A passionate Nepali cricket fan, who started out as Momocricket (since it is how it all started) and then as a Sports Writer for Republica Nepal (National Daily newspaper) and now, the Creative Director at DPL (Dhangadhi Premier League). The feathers in Rajan’s Cap keeps on accumulating. Add to the point that he is also an independent civil engineer currently working in Dream Fapla project, Nepal’s first ‘cricket stadium’ in Dhangadhi, makes his profile more special when it comes to his direct connection with Cricket in Nepal.
The Cricket World knows about the passion that exists for the sport in Nepal and there are things in the background that keeps the future of the sport always in the dark for neutrals to know about. We had the pleasure to ask some scathing issues to Rajan Shah, which plagues Nepali Cricket amidst their performances in ICC WCL Division 2 in Namibia and he was very gracious in answering them for us.
Read on for Rajan Shah’s interview – unplugged and unbiased:
1) Firstly, congratulations are in order for being appointed as the Creative Director for Dhangadhi Premier League..can you tell us something about your role here and do you have any plans for getting involved as an administrator for domestic competitions in Nepal in the near future??
Thank you. My role at DPL is to basically develop or say create new ideas on how make a T20 cricket product more appealing to all the stakeholders involved as well as fans. For example, dplofficial.com, once completed, will be one of its kind website, more specifically cricket, in Nepal with all exciting features like teams, fantasy cricket, quizzes and other various online competitions that will help to keep fans engaged with the DPL not only for the tournament period but throughout the year. Similarly, I am working towards bringing in good international players to uplift the profile of the tournament. Once we get the official authentication from ICC we will work toward that part extensively. I am mighty pleased to see host of established and popular international players interested to play in Nepal, it all depends on budgets franchises can generate and availability of respective player for that period of time.
Well, I haven’t thought seriously about administration at this point to be very honest. And this is first time I am getting involved in a directorial role for any premier tournaments. But I used to manage a cricket club in past. A Nepali Cricket Fans Club’s cricket team which used to participate in club selection games for Kathmandu region, from which the players would go on to represent Nepal. It makes me happy to see Sompal Kami doing well in national colors who started his career from NCFC, and co-incidentally it was debut managerial role for me too. But then CAN got suspended and the domestic cricket was thwarted. So yeah, something that has a clear path with clear roles will interest me. Right now I am very happy writing sports for Republica Nepal and creating ideas for DPL.
It’s known that since CAN remains in suspension, Nepal player salaries have been given out by ICC and there have been delays in disbursement of the said funds at times. How much does both these situations affect Nepali players economically??
It effects immensely. If you take handful of cricket players out there is not very good situations for Nepali cricketers to survive by playing cricket only. It is after the rise of premier tournaments like EPL and DPL and the open auctions that we can see few players earning some money for playing two to four weeks a year. Some of them are still contracted with departmental teams like Armed Police Forces and Nepal Police Club or Nepal Army Club which has given them an alternate source of income but only slightly. There are players involved in academies, cricket training centers and coaching at schools to pat their regular bills.
CAN needs to get instated as soon as possible to confine a road map to the doors of national team so that players can have a proper yearly contract with regional or state teams and only keep cricket on mind than look for new ways of earning here and there.
We recently saw the results being come out for the players selected through DPL talent hunt. How conscious is the effort to get more youth involved in Cricket since Football also runs very closely in the Nepali culture.
It is a challenge actually. Not only for attracting kids to take either sports but also between both boards on who can do worse? Both CAN and ANFA (All Nepal Football Association) are marred by corruption, even the Olympic body. It is really disheartening to be a sports lover in Nepal.
But thanks to private sectors and unmatched passion and love for cricket in this country kids are willing to join cricket academies. The most important factor is that in cricket the international team’s world is small, like say Nepal is always near about ICC world tournaments. Even right now, we are one step away from playing the World Cup Qualifiers; say we are in top 25 teams in the world. For poor nation like us, any exposure like that is a moment of national pride. The World T20 appearance made whole load of difference on how Nepal saw this sports before that. The EPLs and DPLs are result of that, similarly, Sandeep Lamichhane’s involvement in IPL. It all made parents believe we can play Cricket World Cup ahead of football or have better future in cricket. For example, in football, Nepal is in 165th position. Football is more popular but Nepal is closer to cricket’s global events which triumphs the buzz. In short, the name of the nation unites Nepalis in this sports crazy nation.
Nepal footballers in I-league and now Sandeep in IPL. A strong connection as far as sporting relations are concerned between Nepal and India. Good scope for more opportunities in the future for cricketers as and when CAN gets re-instated there??
The possibilities were always there but for some reasons it couldn’t happen before. Irony is both cricket and football got recognition in India at time when both CAN and ANFA are idle.
I am very much sure this thing will increase in future. If Sandeep can prove his worth, more Nepali players will be in demand. For example, it is a start of culture like English Premier League clubs recruiting from lesser known countries and grooming the players for their clubs. Similarly, Bimal’s success and even his friendship with any of the players, coach or any mentor will help identifying more players like Anjan Bista or Bharat Khawas, to get contracts in Indian reputed leagues like I-league and IPL.
Yes, CAN or ANFA will need to play their roles too. Like taking them to trials, keep updated communication or host longer domestic premier events which can help put up some statistics that can be helpful for foreign scouts, etc.
There are grounds in Nepal which come under dispute with matters related to Government. How crucial is for these grounds to survive for the development of Cricket in Nepal??
There is ground in Birendra Campus, Chitwan where Sandeep lamichhane played his initial cricket when he first started learning his craft in Nepal was demolished only recently about a month ago.
Sushil Kandel is a Nepal U-19 international bowler who is touted to be next in line to replace aging duo of Gauchan or Regmi in the senior team got injured playing for Kathmandu Kings XI in EPL. He had learned his skills in UDTC ground of Pokhara, which is set to be demolished for building government quarters.
There is Pulchowk Cricket Ground, which has had hosted WCL Division matches in past is in very ugly condition with no proper care.
You tell me, how much this has or will affect Nepali cricket in long term.
Lastly, Nepal in Division 2 and doing well so far. Batting was always one of the main downfalls for Nepal in recent times. In a situation that Nepal do qualifies for World Cup Qualifiers, how concerned should they be with their batting department against the cream of Emerging nations and the 4 Test nations?
We are in a little transition period. Our team is very young with fresh players like Anil Sah, Rohit Paudel, Aarif Sheikh and Dilip Nath. The problem is we don’t get to play more such top quality tournaments. Even in WCLC we used to play 2 games out of blue in every 4/6 months. Currently, our board is suspended too so not much domestic games either. It is always going to get some time to acclimatize to the conditions and demands of the international cricket. Like you saw how Aarif and Rohit, both newcomers shared a partnership of 87 runs against the 5 times world cup playing team Kenya after struggling in first three games. This will help them get much needed confident boost and if same tournament is continued for next 10 days we could have seen more such displays from our batsmen, young or senior. It is all about getting used to; from conditions, to quality to mental preparations, approach and other things. Paras Khadka is still one of the great batsmen in associate circuit. Like Sachin in 90s for Nepal, Khadka can inspire this batting lineup with his batting and at times carry it on his own but saying that players will need to step up if we qualify for World Cup Qualifiers especially seniors like Gyanendra Malla at top of the innings and Sharad Vesawkar in the middle order.
Yes, our batting is weak for sure but that will only improve if we continue to play quality cricket against quality teams.
