By Sushil Thapa, Fairfax,VA

The women’s national cricket team of Nepal grabbed headlines in the recently concluded
Twenty20 Asia Cup cricket tournament held in Sri Lanka.

This was Nepal’s third appearance in the competition.Prior to this,they had participated in the
2012 and 2016 editions.On both occasions, they were winless.

Although in the latest edition their success was limited to a solitary win against the United Arab
Emirates,the first ever in the competition,the overall performance was encouraging and
reassuring.

Not surprisingly, they went down to fancied and formidable opponents in the likes of India,
Pakistan and Sri Lanka to finish the tournament with one win and three defeats.

Going by the team’s performance,it is fair to say that players gave their best efforts and toiled
hard to put together a fighting game but fell well short of achieving the goal.

They faced quality opponents after a long interval.They lacked the ability,game, experience and
strength to become competitive and cope with the challenge.

India,Sri Lanka and Pakistan exposed both their batting and bowling weaknesses and
vulnerabilities.

Given the sorry state of women’s cricket in the country,it has been an uphill battle for the team
competing internationally.

They deserve a pat on their back for their dedication, passion,determination, industriousness
and relentless effort to strive for success in difficult circumstances.

They have sacrificed their careers for cricket with the intent to glorify the country in the global
arena.

Undeniably, there is no dearth of talent in the country and the level of enthusiasm in cricketers
for the sport is very high.

There is plenty of room for improvement and plenty of room for growth within the team.
The team is on a steep learning curve and has plenty of ground to cover moving forward.
The good news is that the number of women playing cricket is on the rise despite challenging
circumstances.

Women cricket has been around for a while but its development to date is at a snail’s pace.
The stark fact is that women’s cricket is clearly underfunded,domestic competition structure is
irrelevant,there is a distinct lack of proper grassroots level cricket development,cricketers have
been denied adequate international exposure, infrastructures and facilities are negligible and
there is absence of corporate sponsorship.

As a result,women’s cricket is far lagging behind the rest of the world on all fronts of the sport.
Cricket Association of Nepal(CAN) responsible for the all round development has failed to
prioritize and fully embrace women’s cricket and take it in the right direction.

No one disagrees that it’s time to give women’s cricket the same attention and treatment as the men and a new lease of life.

Wake up,CAN! Meaningful steps have to be taken to bolster women’s cricket in a significant
way.Stop shying away from responsibilities doing very little.

It is well past time to transform and accelerate the development of women’s cricket.Else
uncertainty will continue to reign.That means that players have to continue facing
frustration,disappointment and challenges

Currently the team is struggling largely due to bad governance and there will be no end to it as
long as the cricket body doesn’t act with a sense of urgency.