Former Sri Lankan international player Bandula Warnapura was sent to Nepal by the ICC to report on the situation on the ground. Warnapura came to Nepal after the world governing body set two conditions for Nepal’s World Cricket League matches to be played in Kathmandu. The first condition was that ICC itself would organise the two matches, and the second was the the infrastructure, devastated by the quake, should be ready in time. Onlinekhabar caught up with him to talk about preparations for WCL.
Do you have any good news for Nepali cricket fans?
Well, the good news is that the matches are going to take place here in Kirtipur. My duty was to make sure that the new buildings and the ground was in order to hold the matches here. They (the ICC) were not comfortable hosting the matches here and were trying to shift it to India.
Why was that so?
You know the problem the cricket association is having. Until it is sorted out, they were reluctant to host the match here. I have been with the ACC for six years, and I am quite familiar with the situation here in Nepal. So I told the ICC that I’ll go have a look and see what could be done. The two parties (in CAN) fighting each other have allowed the ICC to come in and host the tournament independently.
Will the tournament be organised differently this time?
I don’t know. You will feel it. The Nepali people deserve the match. In fact, I met some spectators yesterday; they told me that they wanted more matches to be played in Nepal. I told them we’ll do our best. Some of the fans even helped us clean a part of the ground. That’s a plus point. People are still with the game of cricket. The administrators need to keep this in mind. If they do not solve their problems the ICC might even suspend them.
The U-19 played in the World Cup, the senior side was until recently doing well. But the administrators need to put their act together.
Have both the conditions set by the ICC been met?
The ground is ok. There will be a team coming in on the 28th to assess the security situation. In the past, there were missiles (stones) lying all over the place. We have cleared the whole place. We are also requesting the public to control themselves. Losing a match and feeling disheartened is ok, but compromising the security is not. If foreign teams don’t come here, then there won’t be any matches here.
Have you reported to the ICC yet?
I will report to them later today saying that the ground and the buildings are in order.
When you came to Nepal to take stock of the situation what were things like?
The ground was in a state of neglect, the ground staff had not been paid for four-five months. This was happening as a huge amount of money ICC needs to give Nepal was frozen following a dispute in the association. So the ICC had to step in to organise this tournament, for the sake of cricket. Nepal was until recently, one of ICC’s top countries. The administrators must realise that if Nepal is suspended, then what will they fight over?
Have you conveyed the message to the Namibian team?
Namibia have not set any conditions. They are ready to come here and play when we say that the conditions are suitable for the game here.
At the end..
I would like to appeal to the media and the fans to help make this tournament successful.
