The National Sports Council (NSC) on Monday decided to organise the National Women’s Twenty20 Championship at the Tribhuvan University Stadium on July 23-26.

The six-team tournament will serve as the basis for the team selection for the upcoming ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier-Asia, to be held in Mong Kok, Hong Kong on October 9-15. Apart from hosts Hong Kong and Nepal, China and Thailand are the two other teams vying for one berth available for Asia in the global qualifying tournament.

The tournament features five regional teams and APF Club vying for the Rs 100,000 top prize. The runner-up will walk away with Rs 50,000. The teams have been divided into two pools of three with top team from each group after league stages to play for the championship.

A Cricket Coordination Committee formed under NSC member Sailesh Karmacharya will oversee the tournament. “The tournament will allow new players to showcase their talent and will not deprive any players from breaking into the national fold,” said NSC in a statement on Monday. NSC also said the Cricket Coordination Committee will also be responsible to organise senior men and U-19 tournaments in the day ahead.

The NSC took the reins of cricket in the absence of cricket governing body of late. The ICC on April 25 suspended the two parallel Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) bodies, saying that it is in a state of leadership vacuum due to the dual existence of the governing committees. Nepali cricket has long been in crisis after a faction of the previous CAN committee led by Tanka Aangbuhang held its general assembly and subsequently elections without support of NSC, the country’s governing body of sports.

NSC had refused to give legitimacy to the new body under Chatur Bahadur Chand which was formed on December 15 following controversial elections. NSC, on February 26, then formed an ad-hoc committee under Ramesh Silwal. But after the Chand-led body moved the court challenging the NSC decision, Nepali cricket has been in crisis.

The ICC recently hosted the World Cricket League Championship matches against Namibia with its direct involvement.