Nepal Premier League 2024: Schedule, Squads, Live Streaming, Broadcasters, & All You Need to Know

As the Nepal Premier League (NPL 2024), the new cricket league, begins play today (Saturday), November 30, 2024, the T20 cricket craze has finally reached the Everest nation, also known as Nepal. A number of foreign cricket stars will play alongside Nepali cricket’s own talent. This also includes, among others, legendary leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane, Martin Guptill of New Zealand, and former India opener Shikhar Dhawan.

Interestingly, the league’s first edition will have eight clubs competing against each other: the Karnali Yaks, Janakpur Bolts, Kathmandu Gurkhas, Biratnagar Kings, Lumbini Lions, Sudurpaschim Royals, and Pokhara Avengers. The total number of matches that will be played is 32. All of these matches will be played at Kirtipur’s Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground.

The tournament’s opening match is set to begin at 9 AM (IST), but there are two alternate times that are taken into consideration. Therefore, some NPL 2024 games will start at 12 PM and 1 PM (IST time zones), respectively. The NPL will begin with the Janakpur Bolts and Biratnagar Kings playing their first match. The anticipated time for this game is 12 PM (IST). The highly anticipated competition will end on December 21.

For the uninitiated, the tournament will take the place of the Nepal T20 League, a previous T20 cricket league established by the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) and contested just once in 2022. The tournament’s objectives are to promote and expand cricket throughout the nation and provide aspiring young players the opportunity to learn from foreign players and develop further, all of which will improve Nepali cricket.

The NPL 2024 tournament’s format

There will be two stages in the first Nepal Premier League. Each franchise will compete against each other in a single round-robin format during the first (league) stage, meaning that each team will have seven games. The top four teams in the NPL points standings at the end of the league stage will advance to the tournament’s second round.

Similar to the Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) model, which is played in India, the top four clubs in the second stage will advance to the playoffs. The ‘Eliminator’ game between the third and fourth-place teams will take place during this NPL 2024 stage. The ‘Qualifier 1’ match will pit the top two teams against one another. The winner of this match advances to the Nepal Premier League final.

However, by facing the victor of the “Qualifier 2” game, the losing side from the Qualifier 1 match will still have an opportunity to go to the NPL 2024 final. The winners of Qualifiers 1 and 2, respectively, will ultimately face off in the Everest nation’s top showdown in the recently established T20 cricket league. On December 21, 2024, the competition final will take place.

Nepal Premier League 2024 squads

Karnali Yaks:

Shikhar Dhawan, Sompal Kami (Marquee Player), Gulshan Kumar Jha, Nandan Yadav, Mausam Dhakal, Arjun Gharti, Dev Khanal, Rit Gautam, Bhuban Karki, Dipendra Rawat, Dipak Dumre, Unish Bikram Singh Thakuri, Chadwick Walton, Babar Hayat, Hussain Talat.

Chitwan Rhinos:

Kushal Malla (Marquee Player), Rijan Dhakal, Kamal Singh Airee, Sharad Vesawkar, Bipin Rawal, Santosh Karki, Dipesh Shrestha, Amar Singh Rautela, Deepak Bohara, Ranjeet Kumar, Gautam KC, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Marchant De Lange, Luc Benkenstein, Hassan Eisakhil.