"It seems to me, I haven't left Kathmandu at all," Monty Desai said at Tribhuvan International Airport before being questioned by the media. He has been associated with Nepali cricket for 12 years and this time he has become the coach of Kathmandu Gorkhaz for the Nepal Premier League.

Gorkhaz, which owns Kathmandu Sports Development Venture, appointed Monty as the coach of the capital's franchise team last month. He came down to Kathmandu on Thursday focusing on the auction to be held on Saturday for the second edition of NPL.

I am still contributing to the cricket of this country, now the journey with Kathmandu Gorkhas will be exciting. This journey will start by taking new players from the mini auction," Monty, who returned to Nepal after 6 months, said, "I wanted to contribute in some way because this nation has introduced me. I will be grateful for this for the rest of my life.' 

Monty has been the coach of Nepal for 2 years since February 2023. At the same time, Nepal won 11 matches in 12 matches of the World Cup League-2 and directly qualified for the 2023 ODI World Cup. Under Monty's training, Nepal played the Asia Cup for the first time and returned to the Twenty20 World Cup after 10 years. 

Gorkhaz has 'retained' Bhim Sarki, Shahab Alam, Rashid Khan, Dipesh Kandel and Prateek Shrestha along with marquee player Karan KC from the first season of NPL. Monty was received at the airport by Gorkhaz Executive Director Anubhav Swar Sirohia, Chief Executive Officer Suraj Singh Thakuri and coach Vasant Shahi. Remembering that Gorkhaz was fifth last year, Monty said there is a lot of homework to do better. 

We have 'Valentine Boy' Karan, I am very happy with the way he is taking his career forward. Two good Devrehate spinners are Shahab and Deepesh. I have not worked with Pratik. It remains to be seen what kind of player he is and what kind of ability he has," said Monty about the Gorkhaz team. "There are some old and some new names in the auction. I have seen many players names on the list. We have to get 5 players from the mini auction, so we have to be strategic and balance Gorkhaz.' 

He said that the management informed him that he was not lucky even in the lucky draw last year. He is hopeful that Bheem (Sarki) will play a good role among the Nepali team's batters. Monty says that he is discussing with the team for the auction and hopes to get good players because the domestic cricket is getting better. 

'I watched NPL last season, if 1-2 games were good, the team could have been in the top four. Now it's time to create an identity for Kathmandu Gorkhaz, the more important aspect is that whoever plays for this franchise team should also have aspirations to represent the nation,” said Monty. 

Kathmandu Gorkhaz coach Monty Desai

Gorkhaz was the first to propose for NPL, saying that he came because he said about his new team, "In terms of bowling, we can do better." In terms of batting, it seemed that some players of the national team were missed. But foreign players can also influence it. If we get 1-2 players from the auction, it can make a difference in the team.' 

He was the scout coach of Indian Premier League team Rajasthan Royals until 2014. Since then he has been the batting coach of Canada, Afghanistan, West Indies teams. He said, "I was out of franchise cricket for some time, I am back again." The challenge is to keep our players who are not in the national team in a rhythm.