The Cricket Association of Nepal has decided to start the national men’s team training camp from November 25.

The national men’s team has not played any tournament after competing in the 2020 Asia Cup Qualifiers held in Thailand in February and March earlier this year. Nepal were set to visit Namibia in April, Papua New Guinea (PNG) in June and Scotland in July earlier this year for their matches of the ICC World Cup League 2, but they were all postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

If the matches go as per the original fixtures of the International Cricket Council (ICC), Nepal would visit Oman in January, host United Arab Emirates and PNG in February, and visit the United States in August before hosting Namibia and Scotland in November in 2021. The four-year cycle of the tournament that began in 2019 would finish in 2022. The event is also the gateway for the 2023 ICC World Cup Qualification process.

The top three teams will advance to the 2022 Cricket World Cup Qualifier tournament while the bottom four teams will make it to the World Cup Play-Off. But the ICC has yet to decide on new fixtures of the tournament and the whereabouts of the postponed matches due to coronavirus.

“The main view for organising the national team camp is to keep the players fit as they have not played competitive matches for about eight months and we are also planning to host a bilateral series in Nepal in December if everything goes well,” said CAN treasurer Roshan Singh via telephone. “If there is no change in the ICC schedule, we would probably be touring Oman early next year.”

The cricket governing body said in a statement after a virtual meeting on Saturday that it has amended the previous grading for central contracts of the players for 2020 following widespread criticisms of the grading and central contract announcement made on September 23. While male cricketer Sompal Kami has been elevated to Grade ‘A’ from ‘B’, Avinash Bohara has been lifted to ‘B’ from grade ‘C’. Previously non-graded Sandeep Johra has been brought to Grade ‘C’.

Female cricketer Saraswati Chaudhary has been lifted to Grade ‘B’ from ‘C’ while non-graded Mamata Chaudhary and Suman Khatiwada have been handed Grade ‘C’ contracts. The ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ grade male cricketers would get monthly salaries of Rs50,000, Rs40,000 and Rs30,000, respectively. The female players would get Rs15,000, Rs12,000 and Rs10,000, respectively. While scrapping the previous decision on the annual central contract for 2020, CAN said the contract would be valid only for six months from January to June.

CAN has also decided to hold its annual general assembly on November 18, start the Prime Minister National Cricket Tournament by the end of December and initiate the process to get permission for the tournament from the National Sports Council.

The meeting is likely to be virtual given the current coronavirus situation, said Singh. Among other things, the cricket governing body has decided to hire a physical trainer for the national cricket team and formed a committee led by Prashant Bikram Malla to submit a three-year strategic planning within two weeks.