-Rohit Kumar Agrawal
Biratnagar, 11th September 2015: Siddhant Lohani, The Rising Star of Nepali cricket, has been honored with the title “Our Biratnagar - Youth Ambassador 2015” for his contribution to Nepali cricket at an event “Yuba Sanga Siddhant ” organized by ourbiratnagar.net. 60 people participated in the interactive talk show held at Kanchanjungha Party Palace, Biratnagar. This program was organized to inspire youths to take part in sports more enthusiastically. The program kicked off with the welcome of Mr. Siddhant by the anchor of the event, Ms. Jwala Dahal.
Siddhant Lohani said, “I started playing cricket from childhood and made it as my life goal after SLC. My coach Mr. Moti Chaudary has helped me a lot to groom my cricketing skills.”
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Bivek Dahal, Director of Our Biratnagar presenting award to Siddhant Lohani (Photo by: Nikhil Shakya)[/caption]
The program continued with Mr. Lohani sharing his experiences of his journey from local level cricket to representing Nepal at international level. Starting his cricket career from street cricket, Mr. Lohani is now a part of Nepalese cricket team. He highlighted some of the great experiences of his cricketing life out of which the most cherished moments for him were to score a century in debut of senior level National tournament and to be selected in national cricket team. The comparison of his helicopter shot with MS Dhoni’s helicopter shot added golden feathers to the wings.
Mr. Lohani also highlighted the unity of Nepalese cricket team where the seniors motivate and guide their youths without any type of discrimination which describes the feeling of “Unity in Diversity”.
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Photo by: Saroj Karki[/caption]
Mr. Lohani also addressed the poor reputation of Nepalese cricket in world by sharing one of his experience when he was asked, “Nepal pani cricket khelxa?” when he was abroad on a tour. Not only abroad, but even inside the country, question arises whether only playing cricket can earn the liveliness! He believes that as more talented youths are coming into national cricket team, the scenario would completely change in coming 10 years. According to him, the start had begun with selection of Nepal in last year’s ICC World T20.
“Firstly the development must be made at the local for the improvement of the game at higher level,” said Siddhant addressing one of the queries of the audience.
Addressing the youth motivated in cricket, Mr. Lohani said that they should always give their 100% and never give up even if they are not getting selected. Rather they should practice harder and try to play as much matches to get experience without caring whether it’s a high standard match or a simple street match. “I played as much matches as possible during my cricket career and those experiences stood for me when I was representing the country”, said Mr. Lohani.
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Photo by: Nikhil Shakya[/caption]
Mr. Lohani thanked BCCI (Indian Cricket Board) for providing world-class match practice facilities in Dharamsala after earthquake this year for preparation of ICC World T20 Qualifier when one of the audience queried about support from BCCI.
Furthermore, the program featured participation of even children studying in primary level that loved cricket and were a great fan of Mr. Siddhant Lohani. They also kept some technical questions out of which the most praised was- ‘How you play the 360° shot?’ .
The program was conducted in coordination with Youth for Blood (YFB), Merryland College Biratnagar, Birat College for Professional Studies, Knowledge Aptitude Latent Practice (KALP) and Creative Eye.
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Organizer Team with Cricketer Siddhant Lohani (Photo by: Insaf Pokharel)[/caption]
