Nepal Cricket Association (CAN) released the calendar for the year 2025 on Saturday, prioritizing the World Cup League-2 tour and Twenty-20 World Cup qualifiers in crisis.

Nepali National Men's Cricket Team will play 12 tours and tournaments in 10 months. Nepal is currently in a critical situation in League-2, which is the road to ODI World Cup qualification and ODI international recognition.

After playing 12 games, with 6 points, Nepal is in seventh place in the 8-nation tournament. There is a provision that the top four teams of League-2 will directly qualify for the World Cup, while the bottom four teams will have to play the qualifiers. 

In the league-two cycle of 2019-23, Nepal won 19 out of 36 matches, but in the cycle of 2024-26, Nepal has won only two matches. In the next 10 months, Nepal will go to Scotland, UAE and play two different League-2 series, while the date of the next series, which is scheduled to be held in December in Nepal, is yet to be decided.

'World Cup League-2 and Twenty-20 World Cup Qualifiers are important competitions for us, we have made a calendar accordingly,' Secretary Paras Khadka said while announcing the annual calendar of CAN, 'We have also prioritized women's cricket in the calendar.' Before that, Nepal will go on a 15-day tour to the UK and will prepare for Scotland's League-2. Secretary Khadka said that practice matches are being prepared with various county teams in England. After Scotland's League-2, Nepal will play a Twenty20 series with the home team, which will be in preparation for Nepal's Twenty20 World Cup qualification.

Nepal is scheduled to go to Oman from October 1 to 17 to play the Twenty20 World Cup in the Asia region. Before that, CAN has announced the preparation camp of the Nepali national men's team in Sri Lanka in July, pocket camp in various places in India in August and tour to Australia in the same month. According to Secretary Khadka, Nepal will play against Northern region teams in Australia. In September, Nepal will play a Twenty20 series against the entire nation in the UAE. 

The Nepali women's national cricket team, which is currently playing a four-nation tournament in Uganda, will go to Bhutan next month during the preparations for the Twenty-20 World Cup qualifiers. Nepal will play in Thailand from March 7 to 21 in Women's Twenty20 World Cup and Asia Cup Qualifiers. Along with Nepal, Thailand, Bahrain, Bhutan, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Malaysia, Qatar and UAE will compete in the tournament. 

Nepal, which will play in the Women's Emerging Teams Asia Cup in Thailand in June, will play in a triangular series involving Malaysia and UAE in September. The calendar includes the women's national cricket team's proposed tour of Sri Lanka in October. Khadka said that further confirmation about this visit is pending. 

New competition Metropolitan Cup

Can will launch the Metropolitan Cup as a new competition. It is included in the 2025 calendar released by CAN on Saturday. It is said that this competition will be held in the month of December. 

6 metropolitan teams will participate in the Metropolitan Cup. The players who play in it will be classified by the can. Any player can play from any metropolitan city. Secretary Khadka said that every metropolitan city will organize the competition in turn. 

Preparation of new coach

Secretary Khadka said that the process of searching for a new coach for the national men's cricket team has progressed. 70 people have filled out the application form that Can asked for head coach. Two of them have been coaches of Nepal before. However, the secretary did not want to reveal the names of both.

"There have been 70 applications to become the head coach of Nepal, we are shortlisting them," Khadka said, "The new coach of Nepal will start his work with effect from April during the Pradhan Mantri Cup or later and will start his work and prepare for League 2." 

Khadka said that they are discussing bringing foreign coaches and other members of the training team to the women's team as well. Next month, the men's national team is scheduled to travel to Hong Kong for a four-nation tournament. This tour can also be the first tournament of the new coach. 

U-19 World Cup Qualifier at Moolpani

Asia Qualifier of ICC U-19 Men's World Cup will be held at Moolpani. Nepal is scheduled to host the tournament from April 12 to 28. However, since the main cricket ground of Nepal is under construction, the Trivi Ground in Kirtipur, all the matches will be played in two grounds of Mulpani. 

Secretary Khadka informed that the U-19 Men's World Cup Asian Qualifiers will be held at the upper Moolpani Cricket Ground and the under-construction Lower Moolpani Cricket Stadium. According to him, since there is one and a half months left, the work on the wicket and the field, especially in Lower Mulpani, is being done at a fast pace.

Even though there was a Prime Minister's Cup national tournament in Lower Moolpani seven years ago, no national level tournament has been played there since then. International cricket is going to be organized for the first time in Lower Mulpani. Asia Cup Qualifiers, Twenty-20 World Cup Qualifiers, bilateral series have already been organized in Upper Moolpani. 

Nepal is playing three youth one-day internationals against Afghanistan before the U-19 Men's World Cup Asian Qualifiers. All those matches will be played on the upper Moolpani ground. The infrastructure construction work has already started at the Trivi Cricket ground. It is going to be played at Moolpani as it continues as the U-19 Men's World Cup Asia Qualifier starts. 

NPL in November

The second season of Nepal Premier League (NPL) cricket will be held in November. Before that, the release of NPL will be retained in June and the mini auction will be held in August, Can said. The first season of the NPL involving eight franchise teams was completed in November-December.