Nepal look to scale the heights at ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup

Forget the clichés about mountaineering because Nepal's youngsters are out to put their country on the map for cricketing reasons at next month's ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup (CWC) in Sri Lanka.

The country that produced sherpa Tensing Norgay, the man who scaled Mount Everest in 1953, qualified for this event by cruising to victory in last November's Asian Cricket Council (ACC) U/19 Cup in their homeland.

And if they can repeat that form in Colombo then they have every chance of progressing to the Super League stage for only the second time in their history.

They last achieved that feat in their first ICC U/19 CWC, also in Sri Lanka, in 2000 when a narrow victory over Kenya, combined with rain that washed out all of South Africa's matches, carried them into the second stage.

They were outclassed on that occasion, losing all three of their matches to India, the hosts and England, but six years on they appear much better prepared for the task in front of them.

Coached by former Sri Lanka batsman Roy Dias, they have one of the most experienced squads in the tournament, with seven players from the previous ICC U/19 CWC in Bangladesh in 2004 (captain Kanishka Chaugai played in 2002 as well), and they also have a favourable draw.

Nepal have avoided both the hosts Sri Lanka and tournament favourites India and find themselves in Group D, along with England, Zimbabwe and Ireland and they will feel they have a chance of winning all three of those matches.

England arrive off the back of 11 straight losses on a tour of Bangladesh late last year, Zimbabwe have endured recent well-documented internal problems and Ireland, although talented, will be unused to the conditions on offer in Colombo.

The major question mark over Nepal, who arrived in Sri Lanka two weeks ahead of the tournament to acclimatise, is whether they can lift their game to a new level after they were barely tested in the ACC U/19 Cup.

They won all five of their matches in that tournament, beating Bahrain, Brunei (who they bowled out for 21), Singapore, Kuwait and Malaysia on their way to lifting the trophy in front of 15,000 ecstatic home fans and a local television audience estimated at 1.5 million.

Their victories were founded on a well-balanced bowling attack which should stand them in good stead in Sri Lanka.

The seam bowling of Bantu Batuju, Amrit Bhattarai and Abhaya Rana terrorized opposition line-ups with Bhattarai taking 13 wickets in the five matches while Batuju captured 5-29 in the final against Malaysia.

Invariably Nepal took wickets with the new ball but they were then able to maintain the pressure thanks to their spin-twins, Sashi Kesari, the leg-break bowler, and off-spinner Ratan Rauniyar.

With the back-up bowlers Paras Khadra, Basanta Regmi and Raj Shrestha also enjoying success, captain Chaugai should have plenty of options when Nepal is in the field.

With such an array of successful bowlers, Nepal's batting line-up was never stretched in the ACC U/19 Cup as the largest opposition score against them was Kuwait's 146 in the semi-final.

However, in the one match where they batted first, the quarter-final against Singapore, they made 223 with Sharad Vesawkar top-scoring with 68.

Vesawkar will be well-known to England's coaching staff as he made 82 against them in Bangladesh in 2004 while Chaugai scored an unbeaten 90 against Papua New Guinea (PNG) in the one match they won in the Plate competition two years ago.

Leg-spinner Kesari is another player who starred in 2004, making an unbeaten 13 as last man against South Africa to help his side to a famous one-wicket win in Chittagong.

This will be Nepal's fourth time in the ICC U/19 CWC as, in addition to 2000 and 2004, they also qualified in 2002 and beat Pakistan, PNG, Canada, Namibia, Scotland and Bangladesh en route to defeat to Zimbabwe in the final of the Plate competition.

It is the start of a massive couple of months for Nepalese cricket as March sees the senior team travel to face Namibia in Windhoek for the challenge match to decide which of them will compete in this year's ICC Intercontinental Cup, the first-class tournament for non-Test playing countries.

Three of this U/19 side - Chaugai, Khadra and Vesawkar - have already played at that level and if the junior squad does well in Sri Lanka there must be a good chance that others will also get the opportunity sooner rather than later.

The Nepal squad is: Kanishka Chaugai* (captain), Paras Khadka*, Mahesh Chhetri, Sharad Vesawkar*, Yashwant Subedi*, Gyanendra Malla, Prem Chauhary, Basanta Regmi*, Raj Shrestha, Ratan Rauniyar*, Bantu Bataju, Sashi Kesari*, Abhaya Rana and Amrit Bhattarai.

Manager - Tarini Shah, Asst. Manager - Diwakar Ghale Gurung, Coach - Roy Dias, Asst. Coach - Shankar Rana.

* denotes players who took part in the ICC U/19 CWC in 2004; Chaugai also played in 2002.

The ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup 2006 will take place between February 5 and 19. 16 teams are scheduled to play 44 matches in 15 days at five different venues in Colombo.