Gyanendra Malla, the vice-captain of Nepal senior national cricket team, pulled out of five-nation Twenty20 series scheduled for October 5-10 in Oman.

The top-order batsman cited to personal reasons for his unavailability in the tournament that includes Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Ireland and the hosts Oman. “I had already informed the team of my unavailability for the series due to personal reasons,” said Malla without elaborating on the proper reasons.

Nepal’s participation for the tournament was confirmed in August. Nepal will play their first match against Hong Kong on October 6 followed by the Netherlands on October 7. Nepal’s third match will be against Ireland on October 9 before taking on the hosts Oman the following day.

The team that accumulates maximum points after the round-robin league will be the champions. In case of a tie, win with better head-to-head and run-rate will come into play to decide the winners be declared winners. All the matches will be played at Al Amerat cricket ground in Oman.

The series was planned as part of the teams’ warm-up the Global Qualifiers slated for October-November in the United Arab Emirates. All the other four teams made it to the Global Qualifiers except for Nepal. Nepal will still compete in the series despite failing to secure a berth for the last Qualifiers for the 2020 Twenty20 World Cup in Australia.

Nepal needed to win the ICC World Twenty20 Asia Regional Qualifying tournament in Singapore to ensure tickets to the Global Qualifiers but ended but in third place. Singapore instead made it to the UAE leg of the Qualifiers. Bill as favourites, Nepal lost to Qatar and then to Singapore to seal their fate.

Only the champions of the Asia Regional Qualifiers were guaranteed a place in the Global Qualifiers. The defeat prematurely ended Nepal’s chances of playing in the next year’s Twenty20 World Cup.