17-years old Nepal leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane requested ICC to increase the number of teams for ICC Cricket World Cup.
ICC reduced the number of teams from 14 to 10 for the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup that will be held by England and Wales. ICC has faced a lot of criticism for their latest decision to reduce the number of teams for the upcoming Cricket World Cup.
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After the 2018 World Cup Qualifier, the criticism rises up higher as Zimbabwe, Scotland and Ireland have failed to qualify for the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, despite performing very well.
Now, Nepalese young leggie Sandeep Lamichhane said ICC should increase the number of teams for the WC. He recently quoted, “Every player from every country dreams of playing (in) the World Cup. ICC should have increased the number of teams so that every player gets a chance to play (in) the World Cup and grow their cricket to the top level.”
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In that WC Qualifier, Nepal finished at the eighth spot gained their first ever ODI spot which will remain until 2022.
After this brilliant achievement, Sandeep also wants to play Test cricket in future. He said, “We were nowhere in cricket in the last two years (but) after getting ODI status recently we are getting lots of opportunities. I think (the IPL) is a great opportunity for me and it will help grow our cricket back home. We want to remain… an ODI nation and we want to play Test cricket as well.”
Sandeep becomes the first Nepalese cricketer to earn an IPL contract. In the 2018 IPL Auction, Delhi Daredevils bought him for INR 20 lakh.
Talking about Delhi Daredevils’ head coach Ricky Ponting, Sandeep said, “He is a fantastic player from his era to now and it’s a precious moment to share a dressing room with him.”
Talking about the differences between associates’ and full members’ cricketers, Sandeep quoted, “Some of the balls which can’t be hit by associate players, (top players) can smash them anywhere. The difference is experience, we don’t get to play those big games. We don’t get that kind of exposure.”
