The Nepali cricket team is returning home today after a bittersweet performance at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 in the US and the West Indies. But at the same time, it has sent an unmistakable message to the world: “We have arrived!”

Nepal technically did not win any of the group stage matches at the world cup. The only point it got was through a draw with Sri Lanka after rain forced the match to be abandoned. The match with Sri Lanka was certainly the most anticipated considering how they were a relatively weaker team in the group and Nepal had a great chance of getting both the points. But Nepal was not out there looking for the weakest. Rather, it was there to take on the strongest cricketing giants. In the other three matches—against the Netherlands, South Africa and Bangladesh—Nepal gave its opponents ample evidence of its arrival on the global cricketing scene.

The most electric performance, of course, was against South Africa when Nepal lost by just a run. But even in the narrow loss, it won plenty of hearts and accolades, having forced a top Test cricket-playing nation ranked third in one-day internationals and fifth in T20 internationals to run for its money. Neither could the Netherlands and Bangladesh take Nepal for granted. What was equally gratifying was the forceful presence of Nepali cricket fans cheering for Team Nepal. The Nepali fans did not only fill the stadiums from Texas to Florida to St. Vincent, they cheered on even as their team lost. This was not just due to a strengthening spirit of sportsmanship but also the confidence that we are rising and rising as a cricketing nation.

At home, though, there is still a lot of work to do. The men in blue and red might want to work on their batting skills, for that is where we flattered the most this time. After assessing their World Cup odyssey, captain Rohit Paudel and coach Monty Desai will certainly sit down to work out a new plan of action, and we must have faith in their leadership—after all, Nepali cricket hasn’t been as consistently strong as it is under them. What we need immediately is investment in infrastructure. We do not even have a single stadium with floodlights, let alone proper stands and toilets for the spectators. The stadium in Kirtipur is rustic and amateurish at best; the one in Mulpani is taking ages to complete although it has been used for some tournaments; and the one in Bharatpur that has been partially built by the Dhurmus-Suntali Foundation has a long way to go before it comes into operation.

Moreover, our players have limited exposure to even regional cricket although we live at the nervecentre of the cricketing world—South Asia. Nepal must take the initiative to invite regional cricketing powerhouses such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka for friendly and competitive matches so that our players get greater exposure. We have seen how Afghanistan has risen as the dark horse of cricket in just a few years with the right kind of regional support, mainly India. We stand to be the next big story in the cricketing world if we play our shots right.