What an eventful first 1.5 days even though we haven’t begun coaching yet!
Let’s start off with coaches…
Gaby fractured her finger is Australia and is (hopefully) joining us in a week, Sian is recovering from food poisoning after an adventurous two weeks hiking around Nepal, and Ed is trying to legally cross the India-Nepal boundary in a car he hired from Ranchi (in Jharkhand, India) because he wanted to watch two days of cricket and not take multiple flights to meet us in Rajbiraj (fair enough!). Fortunately things are going to plan for Lee, Sara, Tim, and Rachana (so far at least).
So, it’s Saturday 430pm, and Tim, Rachana, Sian, and Lee meet up in Kathmandu. The first place Lee decides to take us to for a meal is “New Orlean’s Café” where we (ironically?) decided to try pretty much all the local food the restaurant had – momos, peanut sadeko, dal-bhat thali, thukpa… And of course, the Gurkha beer that cannot be missed. Dinner was essentially an opportunity for the coaches to learn more about each other -> basically, what were our top 3 favourite fruits (and the debates that ensued with what one assumed was a relatively harmless question). Essentially Boothie doesn’t eat hairy fruits, Rachana refuses to have fruits in desserts, and Tim likes peaches (which we all agreed should not be a contender).
After crashing early-ish, Day 2 began ~10am, with a lazy breakfast in the hotel and making our way to the airport to get to our first coaching hub – Rajbiraj. However, to get to Rajbiraj is a bit of a trek by itself, with a flight to Bidarnagar (35 minutes only, and a spectacular view of the Himalayas if you’re on the left), followed by ~3 hours on kaccha (semi-made) road to Rajbiraj. We met Coach Sara in Bidarnagar airport who also brought with her some yummy samosas to munch on while we were on the road.
Including a well-managed puncture by our driver, Vinod and a chai break where we gobbled down “masala magic” lays and “dark fantasies” (yes these are popular Nepali/Indian ready-to-eat snacks), we made it to Rajbiraj around 5pm, in time to watch the community cricket games.
This was our first foray into cricket in this trip, and such a beautiful sight it was – boys AND girls playing cricket and being coached. Seeing such a large number of girls (at least 30) when 2 years ago there was nothing was certainly an inspiring sight – there were at least 4-5 coaches (who CWB work closely with) running drills for the girls. You could see the ethos of “safe, inclusive, and fun” in action with the girls engaged and just having a really good time (with some great shots and bowling too). We also learned about stories of players such as Sakshi Yadav, who is a real “whacker” of the ball and whose brother (who is a player for the Nepali men’s team) has been a real supporter and advocator of the sport, and Sakshi Dev, who has been a coach for more than 2 years now, and while never played cricket before CWB, has been a significant reason and role model to get more girls into the game.
We then came back to the hotel to check in, meet with the local coaches, made the next week’s plan, and have a hearty meal. I won’t spend much time writing about tomorrow’s plan, because 1) if there’s anything I’ve learned, things rarely fall to plan :D; and 2) let’s keep it as a surprise for tomorrow’s blog!
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