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| Captain Paras Khadka. Photo: JNC |
Question.1. What are your aspirations from the tournament?
Paras: I think we are here to present Nepal cricket infront of the whole world. Its a great opportunity for us, the world wanted to be here. Its not just been a year or three months period that we qualified and came here. For all of us, its been ten years of hard work and playing continious cricket. So we are here to compete and play to best of our ability and if we play to our potential, I think things should be good for us.
Question: How exciting are you before starting ICC world T20?
Paras: Very exciting, I think we have an amazing fan followings back home like everywhere we go. Its almost like another Test (cricket) playing country the amount of people that follow cricket you know the number of fans we have. So basically, we are looking forward to this tournament, it will be a great opportunity for us to show our fans and people from all over the world that Nepal is also capable of playing cricket at the highest level.
Question: Is it an easy breakthrough for Nepal? Do you think Nepali cricket will go ahead from here?
Paras: Yes, it is. For most people I think Nepal came as a huge surprize like making it to T20 World Cup so hopefully you know this will be a breakthrough for the country itself. We really need a structure back home and right know once we qualified for the World Cup, the government, the sports council everybody is pretty keen as to how we can develop cricket further. Even ICC is looking to you know how we can help Nepal cricket to groom. So it is great opportunity, and I hope we can move forward from here once step a time.
Question: Nepal is the home for various adventure sports like bungy jumping and mountaineering.What moved you towards cricket?
Paras: I think we have been playing cricket for almost now, we've started from 1996 in international cricket, we have been part of the ACC. Cricket Association of Nepal was one of the oldest sports institution back home. At International level, we really haven't made it big but we are getting there. Football and cricket are the two most popular sports in Nepal and I would say, right know cricket is up there. Everybody follows cricket, follows cricketer. Everywhere we go, the kids love the game in schools, colleges everywhere. So the game is really going big time.
Question: What meaning does it keep to you and your team as Nepal is going to play World T20 for the first time?
Paras: Its a great opportunity like I said we are privilaged that we are part of the first team that has managed to going the world cup. Like I said, if you think too much about it, you get too overwhelmed so as it for us. We need to go out there and play the cricket we know that we have learned. Its just a game of cricket, so go out there and compete with best of your ability and let things happen from there.
Question: Hongkong,Afghanistan and Bangaladesh are in your team.Which team do you
think will make it through to the next round?
Paras: I see coming in to the world cup you cannot really say which team is really gonna make it. I think all teams are pretty competitive even the teams that have qualified recently. Afghanistan is pretty well in the Asia Cup as well. So you cannot say, this team is gonna make it through or this team is gonna win. We will take it one game at a time. We as a team we are looking forward to our strengths, we will work for what we are strong at and then take it from there.
Question: Bangaladesh is not in good form. Do you see any chance against Bangaladesh?
Paras: I think we play sport because we want to win, we want to be competitive as much as possible. It all depends specially with the T20 format you never know, you need to go out there and do the best what you can. At sometimes, if things works to your favor and the results can go in your favor as well.
Question: Has Bangaladesh been a model for bringing Nepali cricket to this level?
Paras: I don't know much but around 1998, when Bangladesh and Nepal competing at the same level. We are playing ACC trophy before and Bangladesh qualified from there and made it to ICC trophy and won it and got Test status. I am sure Bangladesh has played a role in promoting Nepali Cricket whatever way it has. Bangladesh has been a part of ACC so we are still a part of ACC so Bangaldesh in a way has played its role.
Question: Nepali Under-19 team is said to be improving very much.How is your national team improving?
Paras: Yeah, there is always a critisism that we are only doing well at Under 19 level. But fortunately, the senior team over the last two years has managed better than previous years but you need junior structure as well like under 15, under 17 and under 19. I have always said we as cricketer, right now what we need is a basic structure back home. We are looking forward to it and like I said the government is also pretty interested how they can help to develop cricket further. So things are looking in good form.
Question:Afghanistan made rapid progeress in cricket.Do you look after them for aspiration?
Paras: Yeah, we played against Afghanistan pretty regularly. Its great opportunity for us to learn from what they have done and you can always learn from anything and anybody. They have been doing well so take a lot of positive and what they have doing. We need to go out there and play to the best what we can.
Question: Tell us about the preparations before coming to Bangaladesh.
Paras: I think we play a very strong type unit. Everybody worked really hard come over to this stage so everybody wants to prove themselves and we need to go out there and play the cricket that we know. I think we have a decent bowling and a fielding and a decent batting line up as well. So it all depends on how we play on that particular day. Hopefully we will should have put a good show for everybody. We had a camp for around two weeks back home in Nepal and we were in Dubai like all associate team that qualified for the world cup. There was camp in Dubai before coming over so we were there for around a week. We played a couple of practice matches over there then we are here.
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| Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh. Photo: JNC |
Question: Did you know anything about nepali cricket before?
Shakib: To be honest, not so much but we will obviously look some footage before the game and we will play according to plan.
Question: That means you havent seen any footage yet?
Shakib: Yes, we haven't seen the footage yet.
Question: What is your tournament plan? looking your opponent.
Shakib: First match is playing against Afghanistan and that is our main focus now. When Afghanistan match will finish then look to the other two games. So we are not going to the whole tournament to the center, we are looking to play match by match.
Question: Bangaladesh team did not win a single match in 2014 before the world T20.How do you take it?
Shakib: Well we played two T20 matches against Sri Lanka where I thought we played really well as it could have been gone either way but we lost both games. We are doing reasonably well, Yes we need to work on some points. We have six more days and hopefully we will have well preparation.
Question: How confident are you to win the group match?
Shakib: Yes, we are confident. If we play to our ability I am very sure that we will qualify for the next round.
Question: Which team of the group do you think is under pressure?
Shakib: In this big stage, there will be pressure. We know how important it is to perform well here and everyone here have pressure specially in T20s, the thing is you never know one over, one ball can change the game. Unless, you are winning the game, until the last ball finish you never win the game. So everyone will be focused and everyone will have equal opportunity to win.
Question: How do you take team Nepal as they are debuting in the world T20?
Shakib: I think it is a very good opportunity for them to cricketing world that they are progressing, they are improving as a team and it can be handful.
Question: Have you ever heard the name or the news about Nepali players?
Shakib: I saw some of the news about the under 19 but I never saw big news about their national team. When we were playing under 19, I think we played against them but I saw the news that they are doing well. I think one of the game they beat Bagladesh even in 2004 or 2002. I can't remember that . So I knew that they are playing cricket at that time.
Question: Any suggestion for team Nepal?
Shakib: Well not fear anyone. Just say it a game of cricket, if you do well in the ground, you will win.
you can watch, listen and read the video about this interview by following this link:
http://www.youtube.com/
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