Lalitpur Patriots unveiled four players selected for Everest Premier League—a city-based Twenty20 cricket tournament-through talent hunt programme in Kathmandu on Monday.

The T20 tournament, featuring six franchises, kicks off at the TU grounds in Kirtipur on  December 18. Left-arm medium pacer Pratish GC, allrounder Sumit Jha, spinner Bipin Acharya and right-handed batsman-wicketkeeper Rit Gautam were picked up through talent hunt programme. But only one among four players will be included in the final list of 15 players. Of the four, GC and Gautam have made it to the preliminary 22-member squad for the ACC U-16 Eastern Region cricket tournament.

The players were selected as per the mandatory requirement of organisers. Patriots coach Raju Basnyat said the players made the cut from a pool of 105 players after two phases of selection. “We selected 31 cricketers from the first phase of local talent hunt participated in by 105 players. Later a selection match was organised at the Mulpani grounds before the four were finalised,” said the former Nepali international.

Patriots said the selected players will join training camp starting on December 12 and will have access to all the facilities provided to other members of the squad. All four will be paid Rs 25,000. “If the two players called for the national U-16 camp make it to the final squad, they will train with the age-group team. If we need their services they will called up as  are scheduled to return from Thailand on December 17,” added Basnyat. 

Patriots owner Kishore Maharjan said that they selected the four instead on one cricketer so as to provide opportunity to youngsters who could contribute for the national side in future. EPL is the highest cash-prized tournament in country’s cricket history offering Rs 2.1 million to the champions. The tournament also requires each team to field three foreign players which is yet to be disclosed by the franchises.

Top four teams after the round robin league will make it to the playoffs. The first and second-placed finishers will play the first Qualifier which will send the winners into the final, while the losers will play the winners of the Eliminator match between the third and fourth placed teams for a place in the final.