Prime Minister’s One-Day Cup to kick-start Nepal’s ODI era
By Manish Ghimire
After securing temporary ODI status for 4 years , players of Nepal national cricket team are set to get some much needed domestic one-day match exposure . National sports council (NSC) will organise the second edition of Prime-Minister’s (PM) Cup, which is set to commence from 27th May 2018.
The tournament will run from 27th May – 12th Jun, 2018 and will see a total of 10 teams competing for the PM Cup Trophy. 7 teams from seven provinces will be taking part in the competition along with teams each from Armed Police Force (APF), Nepal Police Club (NPC) and Tribhuwan Army Club (TAC). The tournament will be played in a single round-robin and knock-out format in two different venues in the Kathmandu valley region, namely Tribhuvan University Cricket ground & Mulpani Cricket ground.
Fixtures for the tournament hasn’t been officially announced yet but the organisers of the tournament, National sports council (NSC) have made the groupings, dividing the 10 teams into 2 different pools. Pool A will consist teams from province #1, 2, 4, Tribhuwan Army Club and Armed Police Force, while pool B consists teams from provinces #3, 5, 6, 7 and Nepal Police Club.
Winner of the tournament will receive Nepali Rupees 20 lakhs, while 1st runners-up will collect 10 lakhs. Man of the series will collect 1 lakhs while best batsmen and bowler of the tournament will get 50 thousand each. Ap1hd will be the official broadcasting partner of the tournament as they have been covering other domestic T20 tournaments in Nepal in the past few months including the Everest Premier League (EPL) and Dhangadhi Premier League (DPL).
The first edition of the Prime Minister Cup was organised in 2017 and featured a total of 8 teams. Nepal Police Club and Tribhuwan Army Club were announced as joint winners as the final was washed out due to rains and wet ground conditions. Saurabh Khanal was impressive in the first edition as he scored 270 runs from 4 matches with the highest score of 90 n.o with an average of 135 at strike rates of 134.32 . Sushan Bhari & Sagar Pun were the leading wicket-taker’s of the tournament as both picked up 14 wickets each from 5 matches.
Nepal secured their temporary ODI status during ICC World Cup Qualifiers in Zimbabwe in Mar 2018 and the PM Cup will be welcome change for the domestic players in the country, who have been playing nothing other than private T20 leagues in the past few seasons. A 50-overs format will also provide National captain, Paras Khadka and Head Coach, Jagat Tamatta to view the upcoming talent and other regular domestic performers in action in the longer format of white-ball cricket, for future prospects for the Nepal national squad.
