West Indies ‘A’ team arrives in Nepal for T20 series

KATHMANDU: The West Indies A team arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, on Saturday to compete in a five-match T20 series against Nepal’s cricket team.

This marks the first-ever visit of a West Indian team to Nepal.

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The first match of the series will be held on Saturdy (today) and is slated to commence at 12:15 pm local time at the Tribhuvan University cricket ground in Kirtipur, five kilometres from the nation’s capital.

According to reports, the West Indies Cricket Board announced a strong squad for the Nepal tour. The West Indies A team is led by Roston Chase with Alick Athanaze as vice-captain. The West Indies squad includes Fabian Allen, Hayden Walsh, Andre Fletcher, Obed McCoy, Mark Deyal and Johnson Charles.

Meanwhile, the Nepali team will be led by Rohit Kumar Paudel as captain, with players such as Kushal Malla, Ashif Sheikh, Kushal Bhurtel, Sandeep Jora, and Anil Shah among others forming the rest of the squad.

The lead selector for the West Indies teams stated that this tour was important in preparing for the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.

The 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is the ninth iteration of the world cup held since 2007. The tournaent is organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and held every two years.

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The world cup is will be co-hosted by the West Indies and the United States (US) both from June 1 to 29. This year’s tournament will be the first time a cricket would cup will take place in the US.

In a first, a total of 20 teams will compete in the world cup this year. The 20 teams selected include the top eight teams from the 2022 tournament, the next two teams in the ICC Men’s T20I Team rankings, eight teams from regional qualifiers and the two co-hosts.

Uganda and Canada will mark their debut this year, while the US will participate as a co-host for the first time.