The International Cricket Council, the global governing body of cricket, has divided its members into two categories—Full Members and Associates. While the Full Members play all three formats of cricket—Test, one-day and T20—Associates are eligible for only the latter two.

The Full Members and Associates come face to face only during the one-day and T20 World Cups. And when they meet, the Full Members often beat the Associates handily, revealing the wide gulf between the two categories in terms of skill and experience.

That gap, however, appears to be closing in. The close encounter between Nepal, an associate member, and England, a full member, at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup on Sunday suggested as much.

Teams learn and improve by playing against better teams. But apart from the World Cups, the Associates don’t get to play with the superior Full Members. And this limits their exposure. Without exposure, the Associates could go only so far.

Nepal’s skipper Rohit Kumar Paudel, who is leading the team at the ongoing T20 World Cup, highlighted this disparity during a pre-match conference at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday.

The Associates need to get exposure against Full Members on a regular basis, Paudel said. “My message to all the big nations would be—come to Kathmandu, at the TU International Cricket Stadium, and play with us,” he said. “They will get a very warm welcome.”

If there is one Associate team that is consistently giving the Full Members a run for their money lately, it would be Nepal. In the 2024 T20 World Cup, the Rhinos came close to upsetting powerhouse South Africa, losing by just one run in a final-ball thriller. Nepal’s resolute performance drew the attention of the cricketing world. Fast forward to 2026, they opened their World Cup with another near-upset over heavyweights England, a two-time T20 World Cup champion. England barely averted a shock defeat thanks to Sam Curran final-over finesse. In October 2025, Nepal won the T20 series against West Indies 2-1.

But Nepal are not the only one. Other Associate members have also pulled off some remarkable performances against Test nations.

From the Netherlands beating England back in 2009, there have been several biggest upsets in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup history, inclduing Afghanistan’s victory over West Indies in 2016, Namibia’s win over Sri Lanka in 2022 and Pakistan falling victim to the USA in 2024.

The cricketing world poured appreciation for Nepal after their performance against England on Sunday.

But praises alone are not sufficient for emerging cricketing nations like Nepal to move up.

Despite making headlines after pushing South Africa to the brink in the 2024 T20 World Cup, Nepal, however, struggled for matches against Test nations afterwards.

It was thanks to Cricket West Indies that Nepal got a big opportunity for a three-match bilateral T20I series in September last year, which was Nepal’s first friendly series against a Full Member. Though the Caribbean side did not have all of their major players in the team, there were big names like Jason Holder, Akmal Hossain, Keacy Carter, Jeddah Blades, Fabian Allen, Obed McCoy and Jewel Andrew.

And when Nepal won the series 2-1, their first-ever series win against a Full Member, it left a message to the cricketing world.

“The win [over the West Indies] gave a lot of confidence to the boys,” Paudel said during the Captain’s Press Conference last week. “We are taking all these motivations to the 2026 World Cup.”

However, Paudel argued that only one bilateral series was insufficient for Nepal’s growth.

“We did not get enough exposure after the 2024 World Cup,” Paudel said. “Testing our skills against Test nations would have made us better.”

Paudel added, “We do not expect six-seven series annually against Test nations, but a couple of would be very helpful.”

And when Nepal went under pressure while requiring 10 off 7 against England on Sunday, their inexperience showed.

“When you play in a World Cup, there is always pressure,” Paudel said. “But we are getting used to handling pressure as we have played a lot of cricket in front of a big crowd.”

But Nepal have not played enough cricket with the major cricketing countries. And the skipper believes that given their skills, Nepali players are capable of playing at the biggest level, including at the Indian Premier League.

Responding to the question regarding how he saw the series of posts by the IPL franchises after Nepal’s close encounter against England, Paudel said, “I hope some teams will have some of our players in the IPL, because many of us are capable of playing at this stage.”

ICC Future Tours Programme (FTP) does not prioritise matches between Test nations and Associates. And the busy schedule of Full Members makes it difficult for the Associates to arrange a meeting on the ground.

But Darren Sammy, the captain when the West Indies won the T20 World Cup in 2012 and 2016 and currently their head coach, said it is also the duty of the Full Members to help cricket grow by playing with the Associates. “It is our responsibility to grow the game in whatever way we can,” Sammy said, responding to the Post’s question at the pre-match conference at Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday.

“Australia play Nepal, or India play Nepal or West Indies play Nepal, it is our job to help spread the game,” Sammy added. “Playing games with the Associates will then give them more exposure, give them an opportunity to see where they are and they can better themselves. I think it is good for the game.”

Shivnarine Chanderpaul, a West Indies legend in the game, had told the Post in an interview in December last year that Nepal needed to improve their domestic structure and have more longer-format games.

However, it is not easy. The BBC, in an article titled ‘Is Test cricket financially sustainable?’, published on June 11, 2025, wrote: Nepal, USA, UAE and Scotland are all seen as future Test-playing nations, even if there does not appear a rush for any of them to assume full-member status.

“BBC Sport has been told there are no extra financial incentives from the ICC for those nations to develop their domestic structures for red-ball cricket,” the article read.

These are concerns that will continue to surface as the T20 World Cup gets underway in India and Sri Lanka.

Nepal are set to play Italy on Thursday and the West Indies on Sunday.

At the pre-match conference on Tuesday, skipper Paudel said that they would not take any of their upcoming matches lightly. “We have plans,” Paudel said. “And we will execute them.”