Nepali national cricket team are set to resume their ICC World Cricket League 2 One-day International matches in March next year in Oman. Nepal will vie with Oman and the United States of America from March 19 to 28 next year, according to the rescheduled fixtures published by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

The League 2 matches were suspended owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. As per the new fixtures, the League 2 matches have been pushed back by a year.

The League 2 features seven teams comprising Nepal, Oman, USA, United Arab Emirates, Scotland, Namibia and Papua New Guinea (PNG). Nepal will play six matches in Oman, two each against Oman and USA and 36 ODIs in total by February 2023.

The teams that finish in the top three will secure berths for the World Cup Qualifiers while the bottom four will compete in the World Cup Qualifiers playoff set to take place in Zimbabwe in June and July in 2023.

Along with the postponement of the League 2 matches, the ODI World Cup previously set to be held in October and November 2023 in India is also likely to be postponed by a year. However, the ICC is yet to make the announcement.

As per the previous schedule, the ICC matches would have been completed by 2020.

Nepal have so far played four matches in the three-year League 2 cycle and they stand sixth in the table with two wins and two losses. Oman leads the standings winning eight matches from 10 games played. USA are second with six wins from 12 matches played and PNG are at the bottom of the standings having lost all eight matches played so far.

Meanwhile, Nepal have secured direct entry into the Global Qualifiers for ICC World T20 set to be held in 2020 in Australia. Along with Nepal, Zimbabwe, Singapore and UAE have been given direct entry into global qualifiers by the virtue of their ICC rankings. Nepal are currently ranked at 15th place.

The ICC has yet to announce the venue and exact date for the Global Qualifiers. The tournament will have 16 teams in total including four bottom placed teams of the T20 World Cup in India next year and eight teams from regional qualifiers. The participating teams will be divided into two groups of eight teams each and the top two finishers of each group will make it to the World T20 finals.