Refreshed after a good meal and an early night, the team split up for our first morning in Biratnagar. Saq, Yolanda and I started at Satyanarayan secondary school, and although most of the boys had played before, for some of the girls this was their first taste of cricket. Between our sessions we watched the students march in perfect lines to the beat of a drum for their assembly, and we finished in time to meet up for lunch with Sara, Rob and Kajal, who had spent their morning at Balika school.
After making serious inroads into different varieties of momos, we somehow got ourselves and two large kit bags into two citis (electric tuk tuks – no minibuses on this trip) and headed to Mahendra school. It was all hands on deck to run the sessions, with a bit of crowd control thrown in, and we were pleased to finish the last session in the tranquil setting of Saraswati school, where special guest Mr Miyagi joined our coaching team to see the girls show us their skills.
Finally we joined our CWB Ambassadors, Sanu (ex Nepal U19) and Kajal, at the nets of Biratnagar City Cricket Academy, to help them prepare for tomorrow’s district trials.
Our debutants Rob, Saq and Kajal absolutely nailed their first day, so it was off to celebrate with dinner. On the way we featured in the official photos of a wedding procession, the boys became the new owners of two very fetching pink turbans and we were invited to join the party!
The first ever CWB Cricket Festival in Nepal was a huge success. The enormous ground is being developed with funding from our partners MCC Foundation, and will be a facility Biratnagar can be proud of. A total of 62 girls and 22 boys represented 4 schools, and we enjoyed a highly competitive day of pairs cricket. Given this was the first time most of the kids had played “proper” cricket, the standard was amazing, with two very close finishes. Mahendra just came out on top in the boy’s event, and Saraswati won the girl’s by 3 runs.
An equally impressive performance came from the lovely ladies who somehow managed to produce two delicious hot meals for everyone, with no facilities whatsoever on site.
Biratnagar is now far below us as we head through the jungle and up into the hills to Dhankuta, and our home for the next few days.
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