ANFA changes tournament venue

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KATHMANDU, Dec 30 – After much wavering, the All Nepal Football Association came up with yet another announcement to hold the King Birendra Memorial Cup Invitational football tournament at the capital's Dashrath stadium.

The association, issuing a press release on Sunday, said that the tournament, which is being organised in memory of His Late Majesty King Birendra, will be held from January 12 in the capital following the permission from the concerned authorities.

The organisers had earlier decided to shift away the 16-day tournament, originally scheduled to take place in Kathmandu from December 29, to Biratnagar.

Capital's 12 ‘A’ division, two departmental teams Mahendra Police Club and Tribhuvan Club and three Indian teams: Tarun Club of Darjeeling, Sikkim Boys' Athletic Club and Kolkata's Belgaria Sporting Club have already confirmed their participation in the tournament, according to ANFA.

Meanwhile, ANFA has also announced that another tournament would be organised in Biratnagar with top six ‘A’ division clubs, Mahendra Police Club, Tribhuvan Club and three visiting Indian sides.

East-West get better of Baluwatar

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KATHMANDU, Dec 30 – Baluwatar succumbed to nine-wicket loss at the hands of East-West Cricket Club at the local Tundikhel ground Sunday to bow out of the third East-West BDM cricket tournament.

The tournament's last quarterfinal witnessed Baluwatar, despite employing three Nepal U-19 cricketers vice-captain Bardan Chalise, Kaniska Chaugain, and Pramod Basnet, fail to avoid defeat from the tournament hosts.

Baluwatar were made to struggle by East-West's imported bowlers and were quickly wrapped up for paltry 86 runs in 26.4 overs after they won the toss and went into bat. Parmesh Gurung (18) was the lone batsman in the whole of Baluwatar rank to attain double figure otherwise the opposition themselves were kind enough to concede as many as 21 runs in sundries.

Kaniska Chaugain, the U-19 opener making use of the hardly earned few days leave in the tournament, never really came out of the East-West bowlers' shackles. He failed to check his shot off Bikash Sharma as he played it on his front foot holing out a catch to Bhagat for 7 runs. The short presence at the crease that lasted only 18 balls, would be more of a worry to himself than anyone else, especially considering the daunting task that lie ahead in New Zealand.

His Nepal U-19 colleague Bardan Chalise did not fare any better either. Chalise played a ball more than Chaugain but fell at the same personal score when he top edged a Binod Karki delivery to present a regulation catch to East-West 'keeper Dipesh Shrestha. Another U-19 team member Pramod Basnet remained unbeaten at two.

Bikash Sharma, a seasoned campaigner at Delhi metropolitan league cricket, returned with the match haul of three wickets off his five overs giving away just 14 runs. His match-winning feat was duly recognised later with man of the match award. Binod Karki, Jaki and Basant Singh too contributed with the ball, picking two wickets apiece.

In reply, East-West hurriedly gathered the required runs in 15 overs for the loss of Bikash Rajdan who made 28 runs off just 29 balls. Waseem Raju, who made 21 off 25 balls and a blitzkrieg innings of 33 runs in 16 deliveries from Shailendra Singh sailed them through to the semifinals.