a coveted berth at the ICC Twenty20 in Bangladesh last year. Team Nepal’s debut on the international stage was stellar. Though it failed to advance into the ranks of the cricketing elite, the Nepali team caught the eye of many observers for their sheer skill and dogged tenacity. The underdogs might not have snatched a

trophy but they won hearts and minds, both Nepali and otherwise.

It would be hard to find many other events within the last few years that have galvanised the nation in the way the national cricket team did with its appearance in the Twenty20 World Cup. Amidst much political uncertainty, a seemingly endless transition, and a moribund economy, the cricket team provided a lone anchor of hope for a fractured country. It didn’t hurt that the national team is a veritable mosaic of Nepal’s ethnic and geographic diversity. The team is a synecdoche for Nepal, a scrappy upstart struggling against the seemingly insurmountable odds of an endless resource crunch and a telling lack of infrastructure.

This is the reason the Kantipur Foundation chose the Nepali cricket team for its first-ever ‘Kantipur Icon’ award yesterday. In its citation, the Foundation states, “The first-ever Kantipur Icon 2071 is awarded to Nepal’s national cricket team for the international acclaim it has brought to the country, for demonstrating collective grit and perseverance against material adversity, and for instilling hope among millions of Nepalis.” The award jury, consisting of Lok Raj Baral, Swarnim Wagle, Mohana Ansari, Akhilesh Upadhyay, and Sudheer Sharma, were unanimous in their selection of a team that made “Nepalis of all ages and station proud”.

No doubt, the award is well deserved, but it must be supplemented if the cricket team is to progress further. The larger institutional problem of management

must first be addressed. The Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) has been largely dysfunctional for a while now. In April last year, the players went on a strike protesting unpaid allowances, poor infrastructure, restrictions on private endorsement deals and poor administration. The undercurrent to this clash was CAN’s issues with Coach Dassanayake, who was almost not rehired. The coach has been a crucial factor in the team’s game and the affinity between the Dassanayake and captain Khadka has helped propel the team forward. It would be in Nepal’s best interest to keep Dassanayake around. There is also a dire need for infrastructure and financial resources. Here, the private sector and government entities can both help.

The Kantipur Icon award is an endorsement of the powerful role the Nepali cricket team has played in bringing the nation together in times of strife.

We congratulate them.