Thursday 28 / November / 2024
Kathmandu : The ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 in the West Indies and the USA journey continues, this time, Nepal welcomes Bahrain, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to her shores for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier Final from 30 October to 6 November 2023.
The eight participating teams will take each other on over seven days to earn one of two places in the biggest ICC Men's T20 World Cup yet, featuring 20 teams in total, according to a press release from ICC.
Aminul Islam, ICC Regional Development Manager - Asia said, "Asia's cricket landscape is experiencing rapid growth in all its facets, particularly in high-performance teams. The devoted and sports-loving Nepali fans, along with enthusiasts from across Asia, are in for a thrilling event at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier Final."
Chatur Bahadur Chand, CEO of the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) said, "On behalf of Cricket Association of Nepal, we would like to welcome all the participating teams to Nepal. We are excited and humbled to host this prestigious tournament in Nepal and would like to thank the ICC for the trust and faith shown towards us.
Bahrain Captain Umer Imtiaz said, "Reaching this final and crucial stage of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Qualifier in Nepal is an incredible achievement for us. It has indeed been a challenging journey, but it's filled us with immense pride and excitement. This opportunity represents the culmination of years of hard work and dedication. In preparation for this event, we've left no stone unturned. Our team has undergone rigorous training camps, focusing on every aspect of our game - batting, bowling, and fielding. We've also analyzed our opponents' strengths and weaknesses to come up with a well-thought-out strategy."
Kuwait captain, Mohamed Aslam Mohamed Nawfer said, "The road to this qualifier so far has been an incredible experience for everyone involved, especially the players. We had a few setbacks and challenges but, with the wisdom of the management and the Kuwait Cricket Board, we overcame them. We are only four matches away. It feels like a dream about to come true."
Hong Kong captain, Nizakat Mohammad Khan said, "We think this is going to be a very competitive event. The Asia region has very competitive teams and with only two teams qualifying, there are a number of teams who will believe that they can progress. We are excited to take part in this tournament and we have high expectations for ourselves. We have participated in the Tri-Series held in Nepal together with UAE and Nepal. We are fortunate to have had such great preparations for this World Cup qualifier, playing against two of the top sides in the competition."
Malaysia captain, Ahmed Faiz Mohammad Noor said, "As captain of the Malaysia cricket men's team, reaching the final and crucial stage of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup qualifier in Nepal is a tremendous achievement and a source of great pride for our team and our country. It has been an arduous journey filled with hard work, dedication, and countless hours of training. We've been working diligently on all aspects of our game, focusing on improving our batting, bowling, and fielding skills. Coach Bilal has played a crucial role in fine-tuning our strategies and ensuring that we are well-prepared to face our opponents."
Nepal captain, Rohit Kumar Puadel said, "It's been an incredible journey for the national team over the last six months and we hope to continue this momentum. We will do our best to live up to the expectations of all our cricketing stakeholders. Our preparations leading up to the World Cup qualifier have been really good and we hope to emulate and keep our home records intact and keep building on our recent performances and successes."
Oman captain, Zeeshan Maqsood said, "We have been quite consistent in T20s since our T20 World Cup debut in 2016. We have also featured and were proud to be hosts of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021. Coming into the final stage of the qualification for the 2024 edition of the Men's T20 World Cup is certainly what we have been waiting for as a unit after missing out in 2022. We are quite confident with the composition and competitiveness we bring into the tournament as T20 is a format that naturally suits the player attributes we possess as a unit. We certainly are looking forward to taking on the challenge of competing in the Asia region against other top associate nations and are going in with positive hopes of claiming a berth in the T20 World Cup 2024."
Singapore captain, Aritra Dutta said, "Reaching this stage in our qualification journey validates the effort that all the players and the cricket association have put into the growth of Singapore cricket. It's been a challenging journey due to various factors but an enjoyable one nonetheless. Whilst reaching this stage itself has been an achievement, the boys are looking to take the learnings from this journey and go a step further."
UAE captain, Muhammad Waseem, said, "We are excited at this incredible opportunity of doing well in the qualifiers and making it to our second successive ICC Men's T20 World Cup. We have worked very hard in recent days and months and our ongoing tri-series in Nepal is excellent preparation for the qualifiers. We have a capable team, full of experienced performers and some outstanding youngsters who have already impressed all with their talent and skill."
Bahrain squad: Umer Iimtiaz (captain), Abdul Majid Abbasi, Imran Ali Butt, Sohail Ahmed, Haider Ali, Imran Javed Anwer, Junaid Aziz, Rizwan Butt, Ali Dawood, Ahmer Bin Naser, Sarfraz Ali, Yasser Nazeer, Sathaiyah Veerapathiran, Sachin Kumar, Sai Sarthak.
Hong Kong squad: Nizakat Mohammad Khan (captain), Mohammad Aizaz Khan, Babar Hayat, Ehsan Khan, Adit Gorawara, Anshuman Rath, Ayush Shukla, Raag Kapur, Yasim Murtaza, Zeeshan Ali, Mohammad Ghazanfar, Haroon Mohammad Arshad, Nasrulla Rana, Martin Coetzee, Scott Stephen Mckechnie.
Kuwait squad: Mohamed Aslam (captain), Ali Zaheer, Usmangani Ibrahim, Bilal, Yasin Ishak, Ravija Sandaruwan, Meet Bhavsar, Diju Sheeli, Parvindar Kumar, Mirza Ahmed, Sayed Monib, Nimish Lathief, Clinto Velookkaran Anto, Mohamed Shafeeq Manakkadavath, Ilyas Ahmed.
Malaysia squad: Ahmed Faiz Mohammad Noor (captain), Virandeep Singh, Syed Aziz Syed Mubarak, Vijay Unni Suresh Unni, Muhammad Amir Azim ABD Shukor, Rizwan Haider, Khizar Hayat Durrani, Ainool Hafizs MD Yatim, Pavandeep Singh Jagjit Singh, Ahmad Zubaidi Zulkifle, Syazrul Ezat Idrus, Haiqal Mohd Khair, Sharvin Muniyandy, Muhammad Aiman Zaquan Muhammad Ridzuan, Muhammad Fitri Mohd Sham.
Nepal squad: Rohit Kumar Paudel, Mahamad Asif Sheikh, Kushal Bhurtel, Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi, Kusal Malla, Dipendra Singh Airee, Sandeep Lamichhane, Karan KC, Gulshan Kumar Jha, Sompal Kami, Pratis GC, Sundeep Jora, Binod Bhandari, Bibek Kumar Yadav, Abinash Bohara.
Oman squad: Zeeshan Maqsood, Aaqib Ilyas Sulheri, Khashyapkumar Prajapati, Shoaib Khan, Ayaan Mohammed Khan, Muhammad Nadeem, Muhammad Naseem, Bilal Khan, Ahmad Fayyaz Butt, Kaleemullah, Shakeel Ahmad, Mehran Khan, Prathik Athavale, Sandeep Goud Shreemantula, Siddharth Prasad Bukkapatnam.
Singapore squad: Aritra Dutta (captain), Rohan Rengarajan, Surendran Chandramohan, Anish Paraam, Manpreet Singh (wk), Janak Prakash, Akshay Roopak Puri, Thilip Omamdurai Thilappan, Ramesh Kalimuthu, Anantha Krishna, Utsav Rakshit, Aaryan Russell Menon, Amartya Kaul, Aryaveer Chaudhary, Harsha Bharadwaj.
United Arab Emirates (UAE) squad: Muhammad Waseem, Aryansh Sharma, Alishan Sharafu, Junaid Siddique, Basil Hameed, Asif Khan, Aayan Khan, Ali Naseer, Kharthik Meiyappan, Sanchit Sharma, Zahoor Khan, Muhammad Jawadullah, Nilansh Keswani, Khalid Shah, Vriitya Aravind.
