East West cricket from Dec 22

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu: East West courier is organising the Third East West B.D.M. Open cricket championship with the help of B.D.M. from December 22 to January 8, stated the press release of East West courier, Tuesday.

Altogether 32 teams including a team from Delhi will participate in the match. The winner team will be awarded with Rs 25,000 with a trophy while the second team will receive Rs 15,000 with a trophy.

Cricket in Nepal needs to be further boosted

The growth of cricket in the country is quite amazing. With the start of winter chill, the cricketing affair gets hot in the every nook and corner of the country. Tiny toddlers, school kids and grown -up youngsters hailing from villages and towns want to take a swing of willows at the leathered cherry.

In the bygone times, there used to be tournaments on regional and district levels only. Nowadays, our players
are participating cricket tournaments of regional, districts, and towns and now the at ward number levels. And the latest edition of ward number level cricket tournament in Kathmandu has threatened to edge out the country’s hitherto number one game— football— almost to the second position.

Going by the present wrangling in the football arena of the nation which has blocked many soccer tournaments be held, both of national and international levles, giving rise to the suspicion whether high grade soccer tournaments in the nation were the things of the past. It is here that the importance of cricket gets highlighted. Nepalese cricket team, of late, have been performing well in the regional tournament. Nepalese cricketers’ recent exploits at the Asian Youth Tournament in Kathmandu have given it opportunity to rub their soldiers with world’s very good cricket teams in the World Youth Cricket Tournament in New Zealand to be held in February next year.

If our sports policy makers take note of the events regarding the upliftment of the game of cricket that took place in Sri Lanka Bangladesh, the latest cricket Test playing nation, cricket can be number one game in Nepal too. Lanka, a cricket minnow till 80s is now a force to reckon with in cricket. It’s match winners bastman Jayasurya and bowlers Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas always send chill down the spines of every cricket playing nations.

Lanka, in the past and at present too have implemented its policy to take cricket to grass roots. Schools across the nation have been assisted by the government for special cricket packages, providing sports gears and coaches to facilitate the aspiring players. Ditto for Bangladesh, where the game of football used to be a very famous and number one game till 80. It changed its policies and invested a lots of money into the game of Cricket. New policies to facilitate the players and to develop the game produced good results. More youngsters of the nation, once known for its craving for soccer, got attracted towards Cricket.

The numbers of players taking up cricket has soared remarkably in Bangladesh and it won many ICC tournaments before getting the Test status. And now, with the new policies in place, Bangladesh found it among the cricket’s elite as every test playing nations are scheduled to play test and one day international games with it.

The frenzy and madness over gentleman’s game in the South Asia is contagious one. Ironically, the inventor of the gentleman’s game—England have not been able to win the cricket’s world cup once while three countries of region- India, Pakistan and Lanka-once the colonies of England have won the world cup one time each. This also has helped the game taking sway on the subcontinent’s youths.

If cricket is having its say in the region, how can Nepal remain far behind. Nepalese youngsters are, slowly but surely, coming under its spell. Of late, there has been a sudden surge in the number of youths taking up the game, thanks to the sport’s revolutionary satellite television networks that are feeding our aspiring youths every intricacies of cricket. And add to this, the expert commentary supplied by the well known cricketers of yesteryears as well as of the present time.

And if the Nepalese cricket officials give proper attention to the game here, the Nepal story could be that of Bangladesh. If compared with football where quite a lot of money has been spent only to see the recent squabbles, the cricket seems poised with bright future. The need is to careful caress to the game where lots of Nepalese players are, of late, being hooked up.

Cricket is sinking in Caribbean!

Once dreaded for its pace batteries and fearsome batting prowess, the West Indies cricket has hit the rock bottom. Getting flogged by even the test minnows Zimbabwe, the Caribbean team’s journey from the top cricketing nation to a mediocre team has its reasons.

The Windies, winner of three consecutive world titles in cricket, and where cricket used to be passion once upon a time had produced batsmen like Rohan Kanhai, Frank Worrel, Gary Sobers, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes and Clive Lloyd among others and pace bowlers like Joel Garner, Michael Holding, Andy Robert, Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Wals are a dejected lot. They are surely in a bad form and their recent drubbing shows that cricket has sunk there.

Their recent 3-0 whitewash in the test series by Sri Lanka tells the sad tale of Windies cricket, despite heroics from star batsman world and record holder Brian Lara and captain Carl Hooper. The downturn in the Windies performance is also because of the lack of zeal among school kids and youngsters towards the game. The youths of Caribbean are attracted towards baseball and basketball, which has led to the downfall of Caribbean Cricket. It is worthwhile to note that youths of Caribbean are distracted from the game while youths are getting hooked up to cricket in South Asia. Rightly so, when cricket is discussed, the West Indies and South Asia provide contrasting scenario.