The credit so far mainly goes to their influential skipper Paras Khadka. Before the World Cup not many knew about Nepali cricket. But Khadka forced the international media to take notice of himself and his team right after he attended the first press conference in Dhaka.

The way the charismatic skipper put his arguments and faced the media with his usual calmness prompted a journalist to ask Khadka “You look so calm for a team playing in their first World Cup. Aren’t you nervous?” To that Khadka had replied:  “I don’t see any reason to be nervous. We are here to play cricket and represent our country and will let the bat and the ball do the talking.” Even back to back defeats in warmup matches did not deter Khadka’s resolve.

Spinner Rahul BK, another player talking to the media ahead of a photo shoot with the World Cup trophy on the eve of the tournament, was equally impressive. Some of the Indian TV channels that interviewed BK later said that the programme had been a huge success.

Shakti Gauchan, Sharad Vesawkar and Gyanendra Malla too have been the talk of the town in Chittagong with the way they had held their calm playing against a Full Member team Bangladesh. Gauchan, in particular, for his wild celebration after taking wickets against Hong Kong.

Anand Vasu, Managing Editor of Wisden India, in his piece on the Nepali cricket team has written that the attraction of the Nepali team is the matter-of-fact way they portray themselves. “The matter-of-fact way that he (Khadka) talks is amazing,” Vasu has written about Khadka. “He makes no excuse for who (an Associate Member) they are but just states that they are here to play their brand of cricket with no sign of nerves showing on his cool face.” An echo of what the media gathered here has been saying.

Apart from the Bangladeshi press which that has been running stories on the Nepal team, international media too have been following Khadka, who has shown no signs of a player representing a team that was making their debut.

Similarly, Vesawkar, who attended the post-match conference after the Bangladesh match, has also been able to draw media attention with the way he presented himself. “We are a bunch of players born and brought up in Nepal and play a brand of cricket we know in the infrastructure that we have,” he said. “I am not making excuses but just stating the facts.”