The third edition of one of the best cricket league in Nepal, the Everest Premier League (EPL) is all set to start from March 14, 2020. EPL is best know as the pioneer league in terms of foreign players involvement. Similarly, the final match of last edition drew a large number of supporters. The Tribhuwan University cricket ground was almost full for the match.
In an official press release, the organizing committee of the league publish the rules regarding the “Exclusive Foreign Players and Trade of Nepali Players”. All the rules were happily enjoyed the the cricket fans. However, ‘Exclusive Foreign Players’ received a mixed opinions.
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In the ‘Exclusive Foreign Players’, it says a foreign players who had participated in other domestic league of Nepal (Pokhara Premier League and Dhangadi Premier League) are not allowed to participate in the third edition of the league. This is taken as a harsh decision by many of the cricket followers in Nepal.
With that decision, many regular foreign players like Sunny Patel, Rohan Mustafa, Babar Hayat, Punit Mehra,Gaurav Tomar won’t be allowed to be a part of the team this season. They’d been very impressive on and off the field in Nepal and Nepali fans’d enjoyed them while playing. Therefore, the absence of these players was all the worries of many cricket fans in Nepal.
Or it is a BIG turnaround?
The decision can be taken as a risky one. However, it can be a turnaround for the league in Nepali cricket. With a foreign players requiring a No Objection Letter (NOC) from its government this time onwards, no more local foreign players will be there in the league.
The BCCI never give NOC letter to its players, so this time there won’t be any Indian local players in the Everest Premier League 2020. Similarly, with the exclusion of those players playing in other leagues, other new foreign players will be playing in the league and those new players could be a bigger one.
The success of the third of the Everest Premier League all depends on formulation of the new rules and the regulations. Let’s hope we will be witnessing yet another big Everest Premier League at TU Cricket Ground.