Sandeep Lamichhane will join the Nepal World Cup squad for the Caribbean leg of their World Cup campaign, after sitting out their first two matches in the USA. The former Nepal captain had been facing an eight-year prison sentence before his rape conviction was overturned on appeal on the even of the World Cup. Nonetheless, he was denied a US visa despite the lobbying efforts of the Cricket Association of Nepal as well as several Nepal government agencies.
Consequently, Nepal were without their star legspinner when they lost to the Netherlands at Dallas last week, and will also be without him when they take on Sri Lanka at Lauderhill in Florida on Wednesday. Lamichhane will be available for Nepal’s final two matches however, against South Africa and Bangladesh at Kingstown, St Vincent.
Lamichhane is understood to have been included in the final squad list submitted to the ICC ahead of the tournament, though his name was not included in the publicly-announced squad. The ICC and CAN had rather listed travelling reserve Patish GC among the 15.
Lamichhane has already arrived in the Caribbean, where he has considerable experience thanks to his stints at the CPL with the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, Barbados Tridents and Jamaica Tallawahs. While he has not played a competitive match since late last year, he is understood to have been training regularly at Kathmandu’s TU Ground since he was cleared.
“I would like to thank the Government of Nepal, Foreign Ministry, Sports Ministry, National Sports Council and Cricket Association of Nepal for their support to help get me a US visa but unfortunately it did not work out this time. I am now joining the National team for the last two matches in the West Indies and look forward to fulfilling my dreams and the dream of all cricket lovers.” Lamichhane said in a statement posted on social media, where the legspinner also deplores criticism of CAN president Chatur Bahadur Chand and secretary Paras Khadka.
CAN confirmed the move in a similar statement, “Nepal player Sandeep Lamichhane will leave for the West Indies to join the Nepal team for the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Following the decision of the honourable Patan High Court on May 15th, CAN decided to keep young bowler Pratish Ji as travelling reserve and include Lamichhane in the 15-member list submitted to the ICC. We sincerely hope all Nepali cricket supporters will unite and cheer for the Nepal team in this grand festival of cricket in which Nepal is participating for the first time in ten years”
