Kathmandu. Chadwick Walton and Babar Hayat, the foreign players contracted to Karnali Yaks, have arrived in Nepal.
West Indies’ Walton and Hong Kong’s Hayat landed in Kathmandu on Tuesday. They came separately and were welcomed at Swagat Airport by Jhanak Dutt Khanal, co-owner Ghirendra Ghimire and coach Gyanendra Malla, owner of Karnali Yaks owned by Himalayan Wilders and Engineers.
Walton has scored 225 runs in 19 T20Is for the West Indies. He has scored 3578 runs in 188 T20 matches. Walton has previously come to Nepal and played T20 cricket. He played for Janakpur Royals in the Nepal T20 League held in 2022.
Babar, 32, has scored 1,910 runs in 79 T20Is for Hong Kong. His strike rate is 132.27. He has scored two centuries and 10 half-centuries for Hong Kong. He scored 110 runs against Nepal in 2024. Hayat has also come to Nepal many times for the Hong Kong team. He has also played in the Nepali League.
Karnali Yaks, coached by Gyanendra Malla and with Sompal Kami as the marquee player, has signed 4 foreign players. Karnali Yaks signed India’s Shikhar Dhawan, a famous cricketer from India, to the team last week.
Karnali Yaks have signed Walton, who has played Tests for the West Indies, Hayat, an experienced player playing international games for Hong Kong, and former Oman captain Jeeson Maqsood to the team.
The team includes Gulshan Jha, Dev Khanal, who are playing for the Nepal national team, and Nandan Yadav. From the ‘B’ category, Arjun Gharti is joined by Rit Gautam, Mausam Dhakal and Bhuvan Karki. From the ‘C’ category, Deepak Dumre is joined by Dipendra Rawat and Younis Bikram Singh Thakuri. Bipin Prasad Sharma has been selected as an iconic player from the talent hunt.
Karnali Yaks has appointed artist Swastima Khadka as the ‘Face of Karnali Yaks’. Sisan Bania is the youth ambassador. Hotel Hilton is the hospitality partner.
The NPL competition will be held from Mangsir 15 at the Tribhuvan University Cricket Ground in Kirtipur, Kathmandu. The competition will continue until Poush 6.