From Buddha’s own country | Maiidan

The team cools off in their hotel's pool
On the morning of 16 January, we landed in Colombo for the ICC U-19 championships and were whisked away to Hotel Holiday Inn. We immediately went to sleep and relax because the next day, cricket practices would begin.

It was so hot in Colombo, I couldn't even begin to describe. The temperature is always above 30 degree Celsius and the humidity is around 80 percent. We got easily tired, sweated like pigs and felt weak. The food was very spicy and hot, with generous helpings of sea food. The first week was spent in trying to adjust to local conditions.

Sri Lankans are very enthusiastic about cricket. Newspapers there always have cricket updates—school level tournaments or league matches. There are around 20 clubs in the A Division league in Sri Lanka and each club has their own ground.

Roy (Dias) sir took us for a short practice session to his club's field, the Colombo Colts Cricket Club. We met the legendary Arjun Ranatunga (who led Sri Lanka to the Cricket World Cup victory in 1996), Romesh Kaluwitharana and Chaminda Vaas.

In the bus
The city of Kandy is beautiful and much cooler than Colombo. We visited the Temple of the Tooth where the relic of a Buddha's tooth is preserved under seven layers of gold. It is rarely open except for very important people. There were many devotees there that day but only we were allowed inside to see the tooth. We felt very special.

Buddhists there respect Nepalis since we come from Buddha's own country. They know Nepal is mountainous. One grounds-man at the cricket club asked me, "Is it possible to play cricket in the mountains also?" I didn't know what to say but I'm sure that the games we played in the tournament answered his question.

We reported to Galadhari Hotel by the famous Galle-Face beach on 1 February. Our first practice match was with the Sri Lanka Development Squad (future players of the national team). It felt good playing with such a strong team before the tournament, although we lost by 100 runs.

The practice match against Scotland was important because we were looking for revenge. They beat us in Bangladesh in 2004. It was a roughshod game punctuated by them swearing at us. After the match, we shook hands with our opponents, looked into their eyes and said "Tough luck, guys." We won by 6 wickets!

Spicy Sri Lankan lunch
England wasn't the best team in the tournament but we dropped a few crucial catches which affected our points. The match with Zimbabwe slipped through our fingers—we lost by 2 runs—we had 8 wickets in hand with just 50 runs to make at one point. Zimbabwe had a strong team but we put up a good fight. Some of Ireland's players had played County Cricket in England, including their captain Ian Morgan who made 88 runs while chasing our total of 234. But we beat them with pretty good all-round performance.

On Democracy Day, we went to the Nepali embassy for the flag hoisting ceremony, which felt special. We went to Roy sir's place for dinner a couple of times. Though we didn't get into the Super League, we had tougher opponents to face in the Plate finals. We stayed at Taj in the final phase of our 37-day tour.

It was a big achievement for us to have defeated a team like South Africa. We posted a total of 214 against them and got away with a 2 run victory. In the final match, New Zealand made 204 runs against us. Chasing, we were 75 runs for 6 wickets after 27 overs. Ratan and Basanta's batting in that match was awesome. When they were out in the middle, the whole squad cheered them from the dressing room, "Come on boys! You can do it! You can!" I was clutching my Ganeshji's locket tight and praying hard. This would be our first ICC event victory ever. We won the Plate Championship by 1 wicket!

(As told to Alok Amatya)