Nepal to make ODI debut on Netherlands tour

Netherlands and Nepal will face each other in two ODIs on August 1 and August 3, the Netherlands Cricket Board (KNCB) announced. The two matches will be played at Voorburg CC, just outside the Hague, and the VRA Ground in the Amsterdam suburb of Amstelveen.

The matches will be the first ODIs in Nepal's history after the country secured ODI status by finishing in eighth place, ahead of Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea, at the World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe in March. For Netherlands, these will be their first ODIs since 2014, when they lost ODI status at the World Cup Qualifier in New Zealand. They regained ODI status following their first place finish in the 2015-17 WCL Championship.

"It's going to be a fantastic series for both countries as it will be our first ODI since regaining our status lost in 2014, it will also be Nepal's first ODI ever," Netherlands coach Ryan Campbell said. "These games also present us with another opportunity to expose our youngsters to top quality cricket and I'm excited to keep watching their development."

The series will start after the two teams fly into London to play a T20I at Lord's on July 29. The Lord's fixture is part of a T20 triple-header in which both countries will also play a T20 earlier in the day against an MCC squad led by former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene.

ESPNcricinfo understands that negotiations had been held in order for Nepal to play a series of ODIs against Scotland as well during their European tour. However, an agreement could not be reached for Scotland to host Nepal due to budget reasons. Scotland coach Grant Bradburn had previously told ESPNcricinfo last month that Cricket Scotland's last funding allocations for 2018 were spent on organising a squad to participate in the T20I tri-series with Ireland and Netherlands held last month, which Scotland won.