Kathmandu, Sept. 28 -- Having watched their favourite world cricket heavyweights on foreign sports channels on their television screens for years, Nepalis erupted in joy when they witnessed the national men's cricket team on those same channels during the 2014 T20 World Cup. The joy saw no bounds when the Rhinos defeated Hong Kong and Afghanistan in the group stage.

The same tournament was when Nepal faced a Test nation, an ICC full member, for the first time. They played the hosts of the 2014 T20 World Cup, Bangladesh, on March 18, and lost by eight wickets.

After that, Nepal's men's team played seven T20Is against five Test nations-Bangladesh, India, Ireland, South Africa and Zimbabwe-before playing two-time T20 World Cup champion, th...