It is the dream of every player to play for the national team of his country. Even the players who have given their all for the Nepalese national team. Basant Regmi and Prithu Baskota never thought that one day they would have to play for their country’s team. Basant is the highest wicket-taker for Nepal. He is the first player in the world to complete 100 wickets in the World Cricket League structure. When the Nepali team was in trouble on the field, he has got the team through the crisis many times. Prithu did not miss any opportunity to perform. He suffered from multiple injuries.
Now Basant and Prithu are going to play against Nepal. The Nepalese cricket team has reached Houston, Texas, USA on Sunday to play in the ICC World Cup League 2. League 2 matches will start from June 9. Earlier, Nepal is playing two warm-up matches on June 2 and 4 at the Perry View ground. The first game is against Nepalese All Stars. Basant and Prithu are playing against Nepal for All Stars.
It is unimaginable for both of them to play against Nepal. Prithu is unable to express this feeling. Nepalese All Stars are playing against Nepal under the captaincy of Prithu.
I didn’t even think that I will have to play against Nepal one day, maybe it’s a game of timing. But the team I play for is the first priority,’ Basant said emotionally. He last played for Nepal in 2019. It’s been more than two years since he came to the United States. However, he still does not exclude himself from the Nepalese team. Hoping to play for the Nepalese team again, Basant said, “I have never excluded myself from the Nepalese team. One day I have to play for Nepal again.”
Basant and Prithu play every Sunday in the Dallas League of the North Texas Cricket Association with the DFW Stallions. In the Dallas League that started in the second week of March, Prithvi scored 75 runs in a match in the first week. He is ready to play against Nepal. However, they are not able to tell how to play and what to do.
“I didn’t even think that I should play against Nepal. In other words, this is an occasion in which I am captaining myself. So I am having a different experience,’ said Prithu.
Prithu said that he started playing after Aashiq Lama and Sanjay Sharma, who are managing the Nepali All Stars team. Gyanendra Malla, Sharad Bheshavkar, Subhash Khakurel, Basant, Sompal Siddhant and Prithu together with the then captain Paras Khadka played two X cricket tournaments with Nepalese Rhinos in 2016. They won the 60,000 prize money tournament in Houston when Paras Khadka hit four sixes in an over off Saheed Ajmal. This game was played against a Pakistani team.
Sompal is still the Nepalese team in the Nepalese player playing in Houston. Prithu claims that the Nepali All Stars have gotten better. “The All-Stars team is good because of the experienced players. I have played with a lot of players. It has regular players. They are well aware of the conditions here,” said Prithu. – Source Kantipur