Nepal makes the headlines with Asia Premier Cup title

At the beginning of the Asia Premier Cup, it looked like Nepal and the UAE were the strongest teams, the ones the others had to beat if they wished to claim the prize of progressing to the Asia Cup in September. This proved to be the case, the two teams resuming a fierce rivalry in a rain-affected final, which needed to be extended into the reserve day for a result to be achieved. Nepal emerged victorious to the delight of their fervent supporters.

This delight was expressed not just at the ground but widely on social media. Two themes of the postings were clear. First, there were pointed references to the appearance of a match report on the International Cricket Council’s website. Second was the fear that the Asia Cup would not take place because of political tensions between India and Pakistan. Both themes betray the emotion which cricket engenders in Nepal.

It has to be assumed that the reference to the ICC report reflects a long-standing feeling in Nepal and, perhaps, among Associate Members, that the game’s governing body does not recognize and report on their matches and performances in sufficient depth. This would be a surprising accusation, if true, since one of the ICC’s objectives is to grow and promote the game internationally, something that it can claim to be achieving.

One aspect of this promotion was its collaboration with Emerging Cricket. This voluntary organization was started in late 2018 by a former CEO of Cricket Hong Kong as a WhatsApp chat group. The vision was to change the way that cricket beyond the Full Members was projected to the world. As part of its growing coverage via blogs, interviews, reports and commentary for live streams, Emerging Cricket established a partnership with the ICC to