Nepal failed to qualify for the Under 19 Cricket World Cup that will be hosted in January in South Africa. UAE gets selected in the tournament after all the qualification matches are finished in Malaysia. There were 6 teams that participated in this qualification. UAE won all the matches to be selected in the world cup event. It's only their second time that they are selected in the under 19 cricket world cup. Before this, UAE was selected in 2014.
In the last day of the tournament, Nepal had to win Kuwait anyhow while Oman had to beat UAE for Nepal to be selected in the world cup event. Oman was not impressive as UAE was strong in front of them. UAE dismissed Oman in 105 runs while they chased the target in 13th over without losing any wicket. Before, the result of Nepal Vs. Kuwait match, UAE was already selected for the world cup. It's the first time in the history of Nepalese Cricket under 19 team that they have been not selected in the world cup for the consecutive second time in a row.
The one run defeat with UAE by D/L method was one of the major drawback for Nepal. In the rain effected game, Nepal had batted first and made a total of 247 runs. Chasing the target, UAE made 122 runs with the loss of 3 wickets in 30 overs. UAE still needed 126 runs to win from 20 overs. The rain came in and the play was not possible and UAE got lucky by the D/L method.
Without any doubts, Nepal was the most strongest team of the tournament. The net run rate of Nepal as well as the other results of Nepal verifies this claim. But, rain was strongest than Nepal in this case. If rain was the setback to choose teams then it is a question to ICC, why would they organize important event like this in a place which is vulnerable to rain. Also, why would each team play against each other only once and not even the final of the tournament. It's a big question to ICC. In 2017, each team played twice with each other. In the other hand, the match was in Malaysia where the rain is a major factor.
So, was it the right venue for cricket ?
In the previous editions, there was global qualifiers where the second seeded team in Asia cup could participate to be selected for world cup. But, ICC has closed that event to cut off their budget.
Will this improve cricket or help the best team to reach the world cup ?
Nepal faced disadvantage of these decisions of ICC. Undoubtedly, junior Nepal Team has the capability to beat any test teams in the world on the particular day. Teams like Nepal being out of world cup is unfortunate for the development and craze of cricket. In the previous edition of world cup, Nepal was behind Afghanistan to be disqualified from world cup. The removal of Global qualification event has a direct impact on strong teams like Nepal who work hard for years to reach the world cup and they do not get a chance at the last moment because of few spots in the world cup or due to limited regional qualification for the teams.
The team which defeated India, Pakistan, New Zealand, South Africa, Bangladesh, Ireland, Zimbabwe in the under 19 cricket has not been selected in the world cup. This is a loss to International Cricket Council as well. On the other hand, the preparation of the youths from years went in vain which was unproductive for them.
Originally posted in my scorum blog here