Nepal Buddha Cricket Academy

NEPAL BUDDHA CRICKET ACADEMY

 

Lachhu Thapa  from Nepal who runs the Hungry Buddha restaurant in Curtin, Canberra, first became interested in cricket  in 2003 when he attended a test match  in Sydney between Australia and Zimbabwe.

Nepal is a  well known popular destination for tourists because of its spectacular mountains but interest in cricket has recently become popular locally.  Nepal now has a national team which competed in the T20 world cup but the sport lacks governance and administration. There is inadequate funding and infrastructure to develop cricket at the grassroots level hence Lachhu decided to start an academy from the bottom up in order to provide financially underprivileged kids with the opportunity to participate and aspire to become great cricketers.

After chatting with his friend Ben, partner at Hungry Buddha, Lachhu opened a website called roadtolords.com with the aim of fundraising in order to one day to see a team from Nepal play cricket at  Lords. He found it hard for people in Nepal to make a connection with the name Lords so he changed the name to the Buddha Cricket Academy.

Land at Pokara, Lachhu’s home town has been leased as there was insufficient  capital to purchase the land. Lachhu’s brother Shiva Thapa will supervise the operation of the Academy.

Fundraising dinners are held at the Hungry Buddha restaurant and a portion of the meal proceeds are directed to the Academy.

Support for the Academy  has been forthcoming with signed cricket bats donated for auction by Cricket ACT and Cricket NSW. Brian Freedman from Bankstown has provided the Academy with second hand cricket gear. It is waiting to be freighted to  Nepal but the cost of freight is an issue.

 

Lachhu is hoping his dream of establishing an academy can be realised so that Nepalese children can experience the joys of playing cricket.

 

If people wish to learn more about or are interested in helping the Buddha Cricket Academy go to  www.buddhacricketacademy.com

or via email  contact [email protected] ph 0422657897

 

One idea I had was to perhaps start a collection of second hand cricket books to help establish a library at the Academy. Ifyou  have cricket books you would like to donate please drop them off to John Harms [email protected] or contact Pamela Sherpa  [email protected]

 

 

 

Pamela Sherpa