Houston gears up for 1st Himalayan Cup cricket tournament

The Nepalese Association of Houston (NAH), the umbrella organization of the Nepalese residing in the city of Houston, Texas, United States of America, is organizing the 1st Himalayan Cup cricket tournament from July 12 to July 20, 2014, in Houston, Texas. Eight teams are set to participate in what will be the first organized Nepalese cricket tournament in Houston, USA.

Following are the eight teams that have registered to participate,

Kanchenjunga Knights
Dhaulagiri Dead Runners
Annapurna Avalanche
Lhotse Lions
Everest H-Town Warriors
Cho Oyu CNS
Khumbutse Khukuri
Makalu United Nepal

The eight teams are from the different suburbs of the greater Houston area. The participating teams will be divided in two groups - A and B - with the group winner and runners-up advancing to the semi-finals of the tournament.

Madhukar Amatya, the NAH President, stated that the recent performance of the Nepalese national cricket team in the ICC T20 World Cup 2014 has brought a lot of excitement among the Nepalese cricket fans all over the world. He said: “We plan to bring similar kind of excitement with this cricket tournament in this great city of Houston that is home to over 7000 people of Nepalese origin.”

“Sporting event, such as this one, helps to bring the Nepalese Diaspora in Houston together and helps us to promote Nepalese identity in the fourth largest city of US. This is significant,” told Dr. Rupak Rauniar, the chair of 1st Himalayan Cup cricket tournament organizing committee and the general secretary of the NAH.

The tournament will take place at Stafford Park, the home of Houston Cricket League (HCL). The league matches will be 15-over a side, while the semi-finals and finals will be in T20 format.