The United States is the top team in the Cricket World Cup League 2, but the same team lost to Nepal 'A' at the upper cricket ground in Mulpani on Friday. Despite this result, the US coach Pubudu Dassanayake did not seem discouraged. He was shaking hands with his players and the opposing team in the dugout with a faint smile.

He usually remains calm. He neither gets excited about winning nor gets scared of losing. This is also his identity. 'I have been telling my players that coming to play in Nepal is the most difficult, it is not easy to beat Nepal in Nepal,' Pubudu was easily accepting the US defeat, saying, 'Nepal's condition is different, today we were exposed in all areas.'

He believes that this will further improve the US team, which is going to play against the home team Nepal and Scotland in League 2. Pubudu is also the most successful coach in Nepal. This is his second stint as the coach of the US. He has previously coached Canada and Nepal twice each. Pubudu transformed Nepali cricket in his first stint from 2011 to 2015. Many believe that Nepali cricket is now reaping the rewards of that success.

Pubudu is the same coach who led Nepal to the Twenty20 World Cup for the first time. He considers the moment he was selected in 2013 and played in the Twenty20 World Cup in 2014 as the biggest moment of his playing career. Apart from this, Nepal also won the Division 4 and Division 3 titles of the World Cricket League under his coaching. The second stint was forgettable and he returned to Canada in July 2022 after counting his fingers.

A year and a half ago, Janakpur Bolts won the first edition of the Nepal Premier League (NPL) under his coaching. Leaving aside the NPL, the success he achieved with the Nepali national team was on foreign soil. Nepal lifted the title under his coaching from Malaysia to Bermuda. If he can produce favorable results in his Nepal trip this time, the US will come close to winning the title of the biggest tournament of the associate nations.

If the US wins all its matches against Nepal and Scotland in League 2, which starts on Tuesday, the US will come very close to the title. The US is at the top with 36 points with 18 wins in 24 matches. Scotland is in second place with 34 points in 28 matches. The US will come close to the title even if it wins both matches against Scotland. The US has only been in League 2 since 2019 and the team has also broken the dominance of the Netherlands and Scotland.

‘Wherever I go as a coach, I go with the intention of winning games, this team has the ability to win those games too. We want to be the number one team in this league,’ Pubudu said at the Mulpani ground on Friday, ‘Scotland is in second place, we want to win over Scotland. We all want to win games and be number one in the points table.’

The top four teams in League 2 will enter the World Cup qualifiers directly. The US is almost certain to be in this list. But Pubudu does not want to keep the US only in League 2. 14 teams will participate in the 2027 ODI World Cup. Hosts South Africa and Zimbabwe have already qualified directly. In addition, the top 8 teams in the ODI rankings will play the World Cup. After not being included in this list, West Indies and Ireland are almost certain to play in the World Cup qualifiers. Pubudu says that the US is in the running to qualify for the One-Day World Cup from here.

‘I think the US has a good chance of qualifying for the 50-over World Cup, but it is not as easy as it seems. Full nations are playing in the qualifiers, there are also top associate nations. So it is challenging but there is also an opportunity to get there,’ he said, ‘For the first time since the 2011 World Cup, 14 teams have been reached, and the US has a good opportunity to play in the One-Day World Cup.’

Pubudu had come to Dallas from Canada as Nepal’s consulting coach when he went to the US to play the League 2 series in 2024. Last year, he was the US coach in Dubai when the Nepali team went to the UAE, where the US ‘clean swept’ the League 2 series between Nepal and the UAE. This is the same series where Nepal lost all four matches for the first time . Pubudu has closely examined the US and Nepali teams . 

‘There is a lot of difference between the Nepal and US teams . The US players are very experienced . They are complete at this level . In this situation, I don’t have to tell them much, they know what to do . All this is due to good training and a disciplined environment, which is why the performance is also going well,’ Pubudu said, examining the two teams he has coached, ‘Nepali players are very talented, but when the pressure increases, they tend to fall behind . This game is about how to handle pressure . Now, there are players in the Nepali team who have been playing for a long time, now it is time for them to show their performance .’ 

The jersey worn by Pubudu did not have the US Cricket Board logo, only the US flag . The International Cricket Council (ICC) suspended US cricket last year after a series of internal disputes. But the national team has been allowed to continue playing. The US team is currently playing without the cricket board's logo.

'There is no US Cricket Board now, there are some cases in the court, everything is being looked into by the ICC and is focused only on the national team, Nepal has experienced a similar situation before. There is no other activity except the national team,' Pubudu said, 'If this goes on for a long time, it will have far-reaching effects because our national team is doing well and we are claiming for the whole nation, but if development programs are not implemented at this time, the effects will definitely be felt.'