Nepal’s Sandeep Lamichhane’s USA visa denied, not to play the T20 World Cup

Nepal’s star spinner and former skipper Sandeep Lamichhane’s visa for the USA for the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 was denied by the embassy. The spinner was earlier accused of rape and was convicted for eight years before a successful appeal quashed his sentence.

The star spinner was not included in Nepal’s original squad and with him being freed from the legal implications of the case, the Cricket Association of Nepal wanted to include him in the squad.

The final deadline to finalise all squads for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 was May 25 and any change to the squads post the deadline needs approval from the ICC event technical committee.

It is understood that it is now too late for the Cricket Association of Nepal to make a move and get Lamichhane included in the team since getting the necessary approvals from the event technical committee could be very tough.

It is also for this reason that the US Embassy also denied a visa for the star spinner, as there was a ‘slim or no chance’ that he would play in the T20 World Cup. The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 commences in the USA and the West Indies on June 1.

Lamichhane said it was unfortunate that his visa for the US was denied and subsequent attempts to lobby the embassy through various official channels have also yielded no results.

Nepal is grouped with Bangladesh, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the Netherlands, and the Himalayan nation will commence their T20 World Cup sojourn against the Dutch on June 4.