The Under-19 team of Great Himalaya Cricket Academy (GHCA) left for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Friday for the first leg of a bilateral series with Emirates Cricket Training Dubai.

The exchange programme will also see the Emirates visiting Nepal in 2018. It will be the third foreign-based tour for GHCA having previously visited India in 2015 and Bangladesh (2016 and 2017). The GHCA squad will play four Twenty20 matches from August 19-22. All the matches will be played at the Ajmal Oval Ground in Ajman.

Ashutosh Ghiraiya will lead the GHCA team that consists of Soham Aryal, Parikshit Dhakal, Saugat Dangal, Ramesh Bahadur Khadka, Punit Kumar Yadav, Harsha Bikram Adhikari, Deepesh Poudel, Bipen Upadh-yaya, Anubhav Karki, Akuch Adhikari, Aaditya Mahata and Abhisesh Thapa Magar.

GHCA President Sudeep Sharma is the coach, while Tejendra Rajbhandari is the manager of the 15-member team. Sharma said: “We have past experience playing in the tours like this and the UAE trip will give our boys more confidence because they will be competing in completely different conditions,” said Sharma. “More than the results the boys will have a good exposure. Most importantly, the exchange programme means the Emirate team will come to Nepal early next year,” added Sharma.