As part of India’s cricket diplomacy in the region, the Nepalese National Cricket Team will train at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. The training of Nepal men’s national cricket team will take place from August 20 to September 4, 2025, ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifiers scheduled for October 2025 in Oman. The Indian government had also supported training of Nepal’s national men’s cricket team at BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru in August 2024.
This comes in the backdrop of the Indian embassy in Kathmandu sending three under-19 cricketers from Nepal for a month-long professional training program in Bhopal. Naren Bhatta, Sahil Patel, and Puja Mahato are currently training under a month-long program that started July 15, at the LB Shastri Cricket Shaala in Bhopal. The Indian embassy in a statement said, “The initiative by Embassy of India, Kathmandu aims to support the development of young Nepali cricket talent while strengthening people-to-people ties between India and Nepal through a shared passion for cricket”.
In the last two years, the Indian government and BCCI have worked together with the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) for training and capacity building of Nepali cricketers. During the January visit to Nepal, India’s external affairs minister, Dr S Jaishankar, met Nepal men’s national cricket team and representatives of CAN and extended Delhi’s support for the growth of cricket in the Himalayan country. In October 2023, the Indian Embassy in Nepal gave professional sporting equipment to Nepal’s men’s national cricket team through the B.P. Koirala India-Nepal Foundation and SJVN Ltd., a Public Sector Undertaking of the Government of India.
As part of the training that has taken place in the past, the Nepal cricket team participated in a triangular T20 practice tournament against teams from Baroda and Gujarat Cricket Associations in April 2024 before the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup held in June 2024. Practice tournaments involving Nepal and Delhi & District Cricket Association team in Nepal Under-19 teams, in March 2025, took place to assist Nepal’s preparation for ICC Under-19 World Cup qualifiers. Not only the men’s cricket team, but Nepal’s Women National Cricket team participated in a preparation camp in Delhi in April-May 2025 to prepare for ICC Women Asia World Cup Qualifiers in Thailand in May 2025.
Nepal is not the only country for which India has extended its support for capacity building. In case of Afghanistan, India has provided stadiums in Noida and Dehradun as home grounds for the Afghanistan cricket team, and for Maldives, BCCI’s National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru conducted a level-2 coaching course for Maldivian coaches.