Free Foresters Cricket Club are hosting the Nepal national team in a T20 cricket match at The Nevill Ground, Tunbridge Wells, on Friday 26 June. Nepal, an Associate member of ICC since 1996, is touring England and the Netherlands as preparation for their ICC T20 World Cup Qualification Round matches which will be played in Belfast and Dublin in July 2015.
Nepal’s progress as a force in international cricket has been impressive, and they narrowly failed to qualify for the Super Ten phase of the 2014 ICC T20 World Cup, ending in 12th position. Nepal finished below Bangladesh and Netherlands, who qualified for the Super Ten, and Zimbabwe; these 3 countries all gained four points as did Nepal, but had a superior net run rate. Nepal were placed higher than Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Ireland and the United Arab Emirates. This is a significant achievement in a country devoid of much wealth where cricket has only recently taken root.
The Free Foresters is a wandering cricket club, without a home ground, which is at the forefront of amateur cricket. It plays over 80 matches a season, and is no stranger to international cricket having played the Netherlands regularly during the 20th century, and lost a close match to Ireland in 2003, which was Eoin Morgan’s debut match. The club was established in 1856 at Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, and the club’s name is derived from its original players who came from the Forest of Arden and Forest of Needwood. The term ‘Free’ reflects that its members were free to play against the club, if they so wished.
2015 is also the bicentenary of the raising of the Brigade of Gurkhas, one of Nepal’s most renowned exports. The Free Foresters has close links with all the armed services playing the Royal Navy, Army and RAF each year, and several of the club’s senior members have served with the Brigade of Gurkhas. For this reason the Pipes and Drums of the 2nd Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles will play between the innings. It is also hoped that soldiers of Gurkha regiments, a number of which are based in Kent, will be able to come and support their country.
The match has been organised to prepare the Nepal team for ICC T20 qualification rather than as a charity cricket match; but it will enable those present to contribute to the Gurkha Welfare Trust Earthquake Appeal www.gwt.org.uk/earthquake-appeal.
