D A R K

Dav Whatmore, the World Cup-winning coach for Sri Lanka in 1996 and the recently appointed Nepal men’s national cricket team Head Coach has arrived in the country. According to Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) officials, he arrived late on Sunday evening and has undergone quarantine for five more days before he is finally unveiled next week. Whatmore is yet to meet the authorities of CAN. He will watch the ongoing  PM Cup Men’s National Cricket Tournament  after finishing his quarantine period in the lead up to a busy international calendar for the year. Dav Whatmore has a remarkable coaching record, which includes a ODI World Cup title with Sri Lanka. He also brings coaching experience within the Associate game, having recently led Singapore. Expectations are high in Nepal, with Whatmore expected to take the side into the upper reaches of both the T20 and 50-Over World Cup qualification pathways. A place at a World Cup proper would be a significant milestone for coach and country.

A team of Sherpas has accomplished one of the most coveted achievements in mountaineering: the first winter ascent of K2, the world’s second tallest mountain, and the only one of the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000 metres high never to have been climbed during the winter season. Ten Sherpas, prominent among them Nirmal Purja, a former Gurkha and UK special forces member who had  previously climbed all 14 8,000-metre-plus peaks in just over six months , summited K2 in Pakistan on Saturday. They left their high camp at 1am for their summit attempt via the Abruzzi Spur in temperatures as cold as -40C but with low wind and in brilliant sunshine. K2 was first climbed 66 years ago by Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli; there had been six previous attempts in winter on the mountain, none of them successful. In the world of high altitude climbing, so long dominated by western climbers and expeditions who have relied on Sherpas to assist them, the ascent – and by such a large team –