Subba, Khadka, Budathoki into semis

KATHMANDU, June 27 (PR) - Sovit Subba, Umesh Khadka, G B Budathoki and Krishna Khadka made it through to the semi-finals in the teachers’ singles Wednesday under of the first Gillette inter-school badminton tournament.

Subba of Kumudini School, one of the favorites in the teachers’ singles, maintained his fine form to demolish Anil Pun of Milan 2-0 in less than 25 minutes. The winning score of Subba read 15- 1, 15-2. Subba will take on Umesh Khadka of Cambridge School in the first teachers’ singles semi-final Thursday.

Earlier, Umesh Khadka ousted Bisheswor K. C. of the host school, maintaining a 2-0 clean sheet. KC, after conceding the opening game to Khadka at 8-15, seemed to have regained some composure in the second. But it was not to be as he could not stand the challenge of Khadka. Khadka, coming up with a fine mixture of nice placement and powerful return, made short work of KC. The latter eventually surrendered the game and match at 12-15.

In the day’s other quarter finals, G B Budathoki of Milan School advance into the semi-final beating Bal Nanda Subba of New Ideal Gillette School scoring an easy 15-4, 15-7. Budathoki next meets, Krishna Khadka of the Cambridge School in another semi-final encounter in teachers’ singles. Before that, Khadka beat Amir Man Malakar of Sunrise School with a convincing score of 15-3, 15-3.

Both the doubles matches of the senior girls’ event turned out to be exciting affairs. Sonam Sherpa and Anita Gurung of Sunrise moved on to second round, beating Sangita Ghimire and Netra Pun of LRI with competitive three-setter. Sherpa and Gurung after dropping the opening game at 10-13, staged a brilliant comeback in the subsequent games which completely turned around the complexion of the match. Their wrapped up the match with the score reading 11-3, 11-7.

The other match of the same event saw Kushum Gurung and Pasang Lhamu Sherpa of Sunrise defeat Manju Sunar and Leenam Rana Magar of Milan by 14-9, 13-10. Netra Pun compensated her doubles loss with a win over Sujata Lama of the host school in the lone senior girls singles match. She advanced to the next round with a comprehensive score of 11-4, 11-9.

In junior boys singles, Nuru Shrestha of New Ideal Gillette faced a tough time to before getting better of Dawa T Sherpa of Sunrise. Shrestha eventually made it to the quarterfinals with a 14-12, 11-8 win.

Left out cricketers take comfort on Nepal’s participation

By Suman/Somesh

KATHMANDU, June 27 - Now that the Nepali cricketers have left for Toronto to participate in the International Cricket Council (ICC) trophy, officials at the Cricket Association Nepal (CAN) breath sigh of relief. The news also transformed the gloomy mood of country’s cricket fans into gladness.

They are now firmly focused on Nepal’s performance in the 24-nation championship— the ticket to the World Cup 2003— starting from Thursday—June 28.

Not all of them would be following the tournament in joyous mood, though. While it would be a moment to cherish for those 14 that they made it to the tournament, the four players, who were left out, are understandably crestfallen.

"We didn’t even imagine that we’d be deprived of the tournament this way," said Raju Khadka, the team captain, who was forced out of the team together with Birendra Bikram Shah, Kush Gurung and Raj Kumar Pradhan as the Canadian Embassy in New Delhi denied to issue them with visa to enter Canada.

They are content that Nepal is competing at ICC level, though. "It’s difficult to overcome this shock but we’re happy that Nepal is playing," the players explained. "It could have been a disaster for the future of cricket in Nepal had we not made it there."

A win in the final at the Toronto pitch is something that would please the whole population of this Himalyan Kingdom but reaching anywhere near that is going to be an arduous task for the players who had to undergo severe stress during the last 10 days.

In the wake of such circumstances, where four of the players were denied visa, the Nepali performance is going to depend a lot on how soon the other players get over the depression. The people who saw them off on the airport before their departure said that they looked depressed before leaving the country.

"We tried to motivate our boys saying that they have to forget about that incident and concentrate on the game," said Binay Raj Pandey, general-secretary of CAN. "Much will depend on how fast they adjust themselves to the condition there and get on with the game."

Once again, CAN received some flak in the way the team was selected. In the original squad, there were four spinners as compared to three seamers. Traditionally, Toronto pitch is considered to help the medium fast bowlers.

In such conditions, Raju Khadka— the original captain of the squad, would have been useful to the side. Given his capability to swing the ball both ways off the pitch, he could been Nepal’s trump card in the tournament. Since he and the other three players were dropped due to visa problems, it would only seem appropriate that the players be replaced by the ones who are similar to those replaced.

Apart from the team composition, Nepal missed out on valuable match practice due to the visa fiasco, which was scheduled for them before the tournament. The matches would have been of tremendous help to the players as they had to play against Bermuda and Ireland— stronger than any other team in Nepal’s pool.

Having managed to send the team to Toronto, CAN has avoided the embarrassment of being left out from the coveted tournament. But it still face the most difficult question: What if any player doesn’t return?

The CAN officials looks confident that there would not be any such incident. "We’ve taken necessary precautions," Pandey said.