Nepal leaves for Italy for WCL Division 4

The Nepal squad to participate in Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 4 has left for Italy on Saturday to participate in the tournament slated for 14-21 August.

The team will join Tanzania, USA, hosts Italy, Cayman Islands and Argentina to compete in the next stage of the competition as the teams push ultimately towards inclusion in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. The finalists from the event will progress to Division-III, and the top two teams from this Division will join the top four from Division 2 and six in Division 1 to play in the ICC CWC Qualifier in 2013. The top four finishers will qualify for the CWC 2015.

Nepal will play practice matches against the hosts on 10 August and Cayman Islands two days later. It will begin its Division 4 campaign against USA on August 14 at the Pionora grounds in Bologna.

Coach Roy Luke Dias appreciated his players for their hard work and commitment on the Himalayan website: "I am really pleased with the boys performance and hopefully we will play good cricket and reach final."

On astro-turf wickets, which will be used during the tournament, he said: "We got a chance to practice in astro-turf for a week here and the two practice matches in Italy will help us in correcting our weaknesses. We had a very good session on the turf and thankfully the monsoons did not hinder our preparations."

Skipper Paras Khadka was also confident of his team's chances: "The morale of the team is very high and I'm confident of a good result. Nepal and USA are the hot favourites to reach the finals, though it will not be an easy task."

Nepal Squad: