The Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) has released the annual calendar for 2025. The calendar includes matches played by Nepal’s men’s and women’s senior and age group teams, as well as domestic cricket schedules.
According to the calendar, Nepal’s men’s and women’s senior cricket teams are playing the T20 World Cup qualifiers this year, while the men’s cricket team is playing an important series of the ICC World Cup League 2.
The calendar has been prepared by including various preparatory programs and series targeting those competitions. Similarly, along with domestic competitions, school-level competitions are also included to prepare for the formation of age group teams from the grassroots.
Nepal Cricket Association Secretary Paras Khadka has mentioned that the main goal for both the men’s and women’s teams this year is to qualify for the T20 World Cup. “Our main goal now is to score points from the League 2 series and qualify for the World Cup,” he said.
Series have been scheduled for the senior team like the rest of the year to help prepare for these competitions. Similarly, some new tournaments have been included in domestic cricket.
Preparations for the T20 World Cup
The Nepali men’s and women’s cricket teams are playing some important tournaments this year. Both teams are playing the qualifiers for the T20 World Cup to be held in 2026. With that in mind, CAN has included various series as a preparation.
The men’s team will travel to Hong Kong next April to play a four-nation T20I series, where Hong Kong, Nepal, Qatar, and Namibia will participate. In June, they will play a T20I series against Scotland. In July, they will travel to Sri Lanka to participate in a preparation camp.
“Since it is the rainy season in Nepal in July, we have planned to go to Sri Lanka for preparation,” said CAN Secretary Paras Khadka. “We have made these preparations so that the rain in Nepal does not affect the preparation.”
Similarly, in August, we will go to Australia’s Northern Territory to play matches against teams playing in the Top End tournament, where teams including Bangladesh and Pakistan A teams and Big Bash team players will be present.
Similarly, Nepal will also play a T20I series against a fully recognized team in the UAE in September. CAN believes that all these matches will be fruitful for the preparation for the ICC T20 World Cup qualifiers to be held in October.
Not only international competitions, CAN has also made a schedule for domestic cricket to have some kind of activity every month. Some new competitions have also been added for the men’s side.
Similarly, the women’s cricket team is also scheduled to play various series ahead of the upcoming ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Asia qualifiers.
Nepal, which played Thailand and the Netherlands at home in early 2025, is currently playing a four-nation series in Uganda, where Uganda, Nepal, Namibia, and Hong Kong are participating.
The women’s team will also play a T20I series in Bhutan soon after. Coordination has been made with the Bhutan cricket team for that. After that, the T20 World Cup Asia qualifiers will be held in May.
Nepal will again play the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup cricket in June, and in September, it will play a T20 series against the UAE and Malaysia organized by Malaysia.
After that, a tour of Sri Lanka has been proposed in October so that there is no long gap. The Nepali team will go and play as soon as the green signal comes from Sri Lanka.
In December, there will again be a five-nation cricket series organized by Nepal, where Uganda, Namibia, UAE, and the Netherlands will come and play in Nepal.
World Cup League 2
Nepal is playing its first ODI series of 2025 in Scotland next June. Scotland, Nepal, and the Netherlands will play in the ICC World Cup League Two series.
Before that, the Nepali team is scheduled to go to the UK to play practice matches. They will go to the UK from May 15 to 30 and play against various county teams. Then there is the League 2 series in June.
After participating in the T20 World Cup qualifiers in October, Nepal will go to the UAE to play another League 2 series against the USA and the UAE. Similarly, in December, they will play 2 ODIs against Oman in Nepal, and at the same time, there will be a League 2 series between Nepal, Oman, and the UAE under League 2.
In this way, 2025 looks to be a busy year for both the men’s and women’s senior cricket teams of Nepal. Although the men’s cricket team’s matches are held at regular intervals, this is the first time such a schedule has been seen in women’s cricket.
CAN Secretary Khadka also says that creating a situation where women cricket players can play all year round will help a lot. ‘While there are not many women’s cricket matches, we have now planned to organize some tournaments throughout the year and prepare for the main tournament,’ he said.
Domestic Tournament
Not only international tournaments, CAN has also made a schedule for domestic cricket to have some kind of activity every month. Some new tournaments have also been added for men.
After the Jay Trophy in January and the PM Cup district selection tournament in February, the PM Cup national cricket is now starting from Sunday. This time, the PM Cup is being organized in 3 grounds in Lumbini Province.
The National T-20 Championship is scheduled to be held in April. CAN believes that the tournament will help prepare players to play various T-20 tournaments. Even though the national team players are busy abroad at that time, this tournament will be fruitful for other national-level players.
The National Games are scheduled to be held in May. Once the official date is announced, it will be known whether the second-choice team will be able to play against the national team.
The Nepal A team will also play a series in May and June. In September, the Nepal A team will go to India or Bangladesh to play a series. Various provincial tournaments are scheduled to be held in October.
The second edition of the Nepal Premier League is scheduled to be held in November, and a mini auction will also be held in August before that. CAN plans to organize the Metropolitan Cup in December.
The Metropolitan Cup will be played by forming teams from all six metropolitan cities and including national players. ‘CAN will call the selectors and form the team; most likely it will be in the T-20 format,’ said Secretary Khadka.
The National T-20 Championship and the Metropolitan Cup are new tournaments. These tournaments will help keep the players accustomed to T20.
The PM Cup has already been held for women, and the national game will be held in May and the 50-over Women’s Elite Cup in October. Camps will be held in Pokhara or Bhairahawa in December.
If other competitions are to be organized at the district and provincial levels other than those mentioned in the calendar, they will be included in the calendar in coordination with CAN.
Age Group
The Asia qualifiers for the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup to be held in Nepal in April 2026 are being held in Nepal. In preparation for that, the CAN Youth Cup has been held in January.
Now, the Afghanistan U-19 team is coming to Nepal in April to play the Youth ODI series. After that, the World Cup Asia qualifiers will be held.
After that, the men’s U-19 national cricket tournament is scheduled for September, and the U-19 ACC Premier Cup will be held in October. Then the ACC U-19 Asia Cup will be held in December.
On the women’s side, Nepal has already returned after participating in the U-19 World Cup held in January, and the U-19 women’s team is scheduled to go to Malaysia to play in July.
In September, a school-level cricket tournament will be organized in all seven provinces to search for talents. The Girls U-19 School Championship will be held in December.
School-level competitions
CAN has included competitions in the annual calendar for various age groups for men and women right from the school level.
For the development of the U-19 team, the U-16 School Championship will be organized for both men and women. The U-16 Championship will be held at the district and provincial levels in April and May, and the national championship will also be held at the same time.
The ACC U-16 East Zone Cup will be held in July, which will be a 35-over competition. The Girls U-16 School Championship will be held in September.
Coaching and Umpiring Courses
CAN has also included activities related to coaches, curators, and umpiring courses in the calendar. In June, the CAN Level 1 Coaching and Curator Course will be organized in all seven provinces.
Similarly, the CAN Level 1 Umpiring Course and Level 2 Coaching Course will be organized in July.