Dorjee Khando
How often have you heard about the corporate beach cricket played yearly in Nepal itself? We know Nepal is a landlocked country, yet a beach cricket is organized in Nepal on the bank of Narayani River and Trishuli River. In Nepal, the concept of beach cricket was introduced by Shangri-la Cricket Academy in 2010.
From March 29-31, 2018, Beach cricket was organized by PALOMA International events and sports management Private Ltd. The event was supported by different sponsors like PRAN, Eristoff, Red bull, Carlsberg beer, Hamro kitchen, Kathmandu Post and Action sports. There were corporate level teams from companies like Hamro kitchen, Kantipur Media Group, Nepal Telecom, Nepal Plywood Association, PRAN, Bacardi Rum and so on.
Day-1 was all about getting to the resort a day earlier before the event. The organizers had managed a bus for all the participants and most of the players were from the valley itself.
Talking about Day-2, morning was really exciting. We moved towards the beach in a bus and walked for around 10 minutes to reach our destination. Organizers were busy managing banners, tents, sound system and mat over the sand. Once the setup was complete, the captains of each team were called for group division. Each team was divided equally among 4 groups.
Firstly, group stage matches were played and from each group only two teams were selected for the next round. As the game went on, there was a time when the wind started coming around around the corner; thus the games were postponed. After that, all of us gradually moved towards resort again.
On Day-3, after our breakfast, we were told to move to the beach and the game continued. All of the matches of Day-2 were completed and eight teams reached quarter final.
Among the matches, the battle between Hamro Kitchen and the opponent was very interesting. The players from Hamro Kitchen were playing so energetically that all the ball hits were soaring above the river. The four teams through the quarterfinals were NTC-Green, NTC-Blue Kantipur Media Group, Hamro Kitchen, where NTC-Blue and Hamro Kitchen were competing with each other to make their place in the finals and on the other side Kantipur Media Group and NTC-Green were competing to get their ticket to the final.
From the 1st game Hamro Kitchen became winner; got tickets to the final and KMG won its game against NTC- GREEN; marked its place in the final. Hamro kitchen had experienced players, nevertheless KMG had young and talented players from their side. Hamro Kitchen marked a score of 88 runs on the board; KMG needed to score 89 runs in 30 bowls. KMG lost its wickets and thus Hamro Kitchen became the winner of Corporate Beach Cricket-2018.
