Anyone using last year’s calendar to plan around Nepali cricket will get it wrong. In 2025 the Nepal Premier League’s playoff week fell in the second week of December and was the month’s peak. This season the tournament moved earlier: it runs from 26 October and finishes on 21 November. December is not an empty month as a result — it holds something considerably larger.

The Tournament Nepal Hosts

The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier Play-off is played at Kirtipur from 4 to 21 December. Eight teams compete and the top four advance to the 2027 World Cup Global Qualifier. Nepal’s own fixtures run the length of it, opening against Italy on 4 December and closing against Kuwait on 21 December. A home tournament with a route to a World Cup attached is the most consequential cricket Nepal has staged.

Why The Audience Is Already There

The build-up did not start with this draw. Nepal came within four runs of beating England in February and recorded a first T20 World Cup win in twelve years, and both results reached a far wider audience than domestic cricket normally does. A home qualifier three weeks long, against opposition Nepal can realistically beat, arrives into attention that already exists.

One correction worth making: several cricket aggregators list a Nepal against India A T20 series on 9, 11 and 13 December. Those dates clash directly with Nepal’s own qualifier matches on the 10th and 12th at the same ground, and the listing should be treated as unreliable until a board confirms it.

Where To Watch

ICC qualifying events are streamed on the ICC’s own platform in most territories, with local broadcast in Nepal through the national carriers. The Nepal Premier League has been on domestic television and on streaming apps through its run. Which operators offer in-play streaming, and whether they are available where you are, is marked in the table at the foot of this page.

The League Finishes First

The NPL reaches its conclusion on 21 November. Karnali Yaks sit seventh with two wins from five and a net run rate of minus 0.846, having beaten Biratnagar Kings before losing to Kathmandu Gorkhas on 6 November and then to Sudurpaschim Royals and Pokhara Avengers. The champion will not be known until the final week, so any December piece that leans on the league’s outcome has to wait for it.

Football has its own December date: the ANFA A Division League starts on 18 December with fourteen clubs playing home and away for the first time.

Two Names In The News This Week

Karnali Yaks. The franchise was the most searched sporting term in Nepal this week, which says more about how the NPL is followed than about the team’s position — five of the country’s seven busiest sporting searches were NPL clubs, ahead of any European football fixture.

Kusal Mendis. The Sri Lanka batter made 119 in Rawalpindi before falling to the Pakistan debutant Saqib Khan, who took seven wickets in the innings. The match registered strongly in Nepal, where South Asian Test cricket draws an audience the domestic game cannot match.

What To Expect

November ends with a league final; December is three weeks of international cricket at one ground, with a football season starting underneath it. The dates that matter are 21 November, 4 December and 21 December, and all three are in Kathmandu or its immediate surroundings.