Nepal: An ODI Nation! (Nepal Cricket History)
Nepal has secured the seat for an ODI (One-Day International) recognition. This is the historic achievement of Nepal cricket. Nepal defeated Papuwa New Guinea (PNG) with 6 wickets in an important match and joins the ODI nations. The ODI status for Nepal was confirmed after the Netherlands beat Hong Kong that is what Nepal wanted.
If Hong Kong had not lost the match to the Netherlands we had to beat Hong Kong for the seventh place. However, Nepal has already confirmed ODI status for four years no matter what will be the result of the final match with the Netherlands. Also, Nepal will play the ICC tournament.
Why ODI status matters to Nepal?
Till now, Nepal is the associate team only. Now after getting the ODI nation status, the Nepali cricket team will get the exposure. In addition to the support from the International Cricket Council (ICC) to Nepal cricket will be increased.
But ODI status is not just everything. The domestic structure of Nepali cricket is not strong. Also, the Cricket Association has been in suspension for a long time.
Therefore, unless the domestic association is strengthened by dissolving the controversy of the Cricket Union and increasing the infrastructures, there will not be any enough room for getting proper benefit from the ODI status.
The U-9 team coach and ex-captain Vinod Kumar Das considered this as a great achievement for Nepalese cricket. He said, ‘The players did what they had to do. Now the ball is in the hands of the administration. Let’s hope all the problems will be resolved and a new capable cricket board comes forward.
Scotland and UAE received ODI recognition in Super Six. Nepal has also secured it on Thursday (March 15). However, Papua New Guinea and Hong Kong have lost one-day international cricket recognition.
ICC has also congratulated Nepal placing the winning match picture on their Facebook cover page and tweets the following.
Congratulations to Nepal! 🇳🇵
They will be an ODI team following #CWCQ after it was confirmed they will face Netherlands in the 7th place play-off! pic.twitter.com/t4zidcO4j1
— ICC (@ICC) March 15, 2018
Also, Sandeep Lamichhane tweets:
Congratulations! Team Nepal from RabinsXP for creating a new record in the history of Nepalese cricket.