Nepal UK
As Nepal grapples with flood recovery, its athletes at the 20th Asian Games in Nagoya have given the country — and its diaspora — something to celebrate: a women's kabaddi bronze medal and a men's cricket team through to the quarterfinals after topping their group.
Nepal's national teams produced back-to-back highlights at the 20th Asian Games in Japan this week. The women's kabaddi team secured at least a bronze medal after beating Sri Lanka 34-25 on 25 September, before losing 48-24 to a strong Indian side in the semi-final later that day. In cricket, Nepal beat Afghanistan by five wickets on 25 September — a result that lifted Nepal from 16th to 14th in the ICC men's T20 International rankings while dropping Afghanistan from 9th to 10th — before topping Group A on 26 September when their final group match against Japan was abandoned due to rain, sending Nepal through to a quarterfinal against Sri Lanka.
Kabaddi: a second successive Asian Games medal
Nepal's women's kabaddi captain, Manmati Bist, framed the bronze as continuity rather than a ceiling: "We are very happy for back-to-back medals in the Asian Games. Every player and staff member has been working very hard for this," she said after the win over Sri Lanka, according to the Kathmandu Post. Head coach Parbati Rai was more pointed about the team's ambitions ahead of the India semi-final: "We still have a match remaining. Why would we not want to get a bigger medal this time?" Nepal ultimately could not overcome India, the tournament's dominant kabaddi side, but the bronze extends a run of continental success for a sport with deep roots in Nepal's rural and diaspora communities alike.
Cricket: rankings climb and a rain-assisted route to the last eight
Nepal's cricketers have had the more eye-catching week. Beating Afghanistan — a side ranked in the world's top ten — by five wickets was, in the words of Nepal News, "a stellar performance... in both bowling and batting disciplines," and immediately moved Nepal two places up the ICC T20I rankings to 14th. That result took on added significance on 26 September, when persistent rain washed out Nepal's final group match against Japan; because Nepal had already done enough to top Group A, the no-result was sufficient to send them into the quarter-finals against Sri Lanka, while eliminating Japan from the tournament.
Why this matters beyond the scoreline
For a country a month into recovery from its deadliest natural disaster in decades, sport offers something disaster relief and diplomacy cannot: a shared, uncomplicated source of national pride. Cricket in particular commands an outsized following among Nepalese communities in the UK, where club and diaspora cricket networks closely follow the national team's fortunes and rankings movement is discussed as keenly as domestic Nepali politics. The kabaddi and cricket results this week do not change the scale of the reconstruction task at home, but they give the diaspora a rare piece of unambiguously good news to share.
What's next
Nepal's cricketers face Sri Lanka in the Asian Games quarter-final; a win would extend their run and could further lift their T20I ranking. The women's kabaddi team's bronze is confirmed regardless of the final's outcome between India and Thailand. Both results will be watched closely by Nepal's sporting federations as markers of progress ahead of future regional and global tournaments.
