Sandeep Lamichhane

Sandeep Lamichhane (सन्दीप लामिछाने, ; born 2 August 2000) is a former Nepalese cricketer and former captain of the Nepal national cricket team

A right-arm leg spin bowler, Lamichhane has played for Twenty20 franchise sides around the world, including the Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League (BBL), and the Lahore Qalandars in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).

He is Nepal's highest wicket taker in ODIs and T20Is.

Lamichhane made his Twenty20 International (T20I) debut against the West Indies, where he represented a World XI side.

He became the first cricketer to make a T20I debut representing a combined team.

Lamichhane was born on 2 August 2000 in Aruchaur, Syangja, Gandaki Province.

During his childhood, he considered Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar and Australian bowler Shane Warne as his cricketing idols.

He moved to Chitwan district and started training at Chitwan Cricket Academy, which is run by former Captain Raju Khadka.

During a visit by the captain, Paras Khadka, and coach of Nepal Pubudu Dasanayake, Lamichhane was asked to bowl in the nets and was selected for the national under-19 training camp.

It was Dasanayake who first spotted Lamichhane's talent when he was a 14 year old.

Lamichhane is also a singer and uploads his songs and music videos on his YouTube channel.

Lamichhane made his List A cricket debut in the 2015–17 ICC World Cricket League Championship on 16 April 2016 against Namibia.

Prior to his List A debut, he was named in Nepal's under-19 squad for the 2016 Under-19 Cricket World Cup.

In their second match against the Ireland under-19 team, he took a hat-trick with his leg-break bowling, becoming the fifth bowler to take a hat-trick in the under-19 world cup history.

He was adjudged man of the match for his figures of 5/27.

He finished the tournament as second highest wicket taker with 14 wickets at an average of 17.07 and a strike rate of 21.9.

He was recruited by former English-born Hong Kong cricketer Scott McKechnie to play for the Kowloon Cantons franchise in the inaugural edition of the Hong Kong T20 Blitz on 2016.

Scott was impressed with the youngster's performance during the MCC tour of Nepal in November 2016 where Scott himself was undone by his spin twice in the same match and it prompted Scott McKechnie to scout for Lamichhane for the 2016 Hong Kong Blitz competition.

Lamichhane ended up picking seven wickets in the three matches against the touring Marleybone Cricket Club.

The Hong Kong T20 Blitz in fact, went onto become a breakout tournament for Lamichhane himself and it ultimately turned out to be meteoric rise for him in his young days as he was discovered for his bowling display and even went onto share dressing room with World Cup winning captain Michael Clarke during the course of the tournament.

In September 2016, Lamichhane received a letter from former Australian captain Michael Clarke, inviting him to play at the Sydney-based Western Suburbs District Cricket Club.

In the 2017 ACC Under-19 Asia Cup, he took bowling figures of 5/8 which restricted Malaysia under-19s to a total of 45 and was named the man of the match.

he play for Bagmati province

Lamichhane was one of the eleven cricketers to play in Nepal's first One Day International (ODI) match, against the Netherlands, in August 2018.

In December 2021, Lamichhane was named the captain of Nepal national cricket team by Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN), replacing Gyanendra Malla.

On 8 September 2022, Lamichhane was removed as captain after he was accused of rape by a minor.

Later, the Supreme Court of Nepal allowed him to continue to play as part of the Nepali national cricket team as per the request of CAN, citing "no person is guilty unless proven".

In December 2023, the Kathmandu District Court convicted him of rape, although the court decided that the victim was not a minor at the time of the incident.

In January 2024, he was sentenced to eight years in prison.

In July 2018, Lamichhane released his first song Udash thiyo from the album Pratikshya - The waiting.

In January 2018, Lamichhane was included in the list of players for auction in the 2018 Indian Premier League (IPL).

He was bought by Delhi Daredevils and became the first Nepalese cricketer to get a contract in the IPL.

Indian Prime minister Narendra Modi commented that the relationship between India and Nepal had been strengthened because of the signing.

In March 2018, he was drafted to play for the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the 2018 Caribbean Premier League, and became the first player from Nepal to be selected in the Caribbean Premier League.

In May 2018, Lamichhane made his senior Twenty20 debut for the Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League, becoming the first Nepalese cricketer to play in the IPL.

He took a wicket for 25 runs on his debut match against Royal Challengers Bangalore.

In the tournament, he took five wickets in three matches with a bowling average of 16.40.

In June 2018, Lamichane was selected to play for the Montreal Tigers in the inaugural edition of the Global T20 Canada tournament.

In the tournament he took eight wickets in five matches at an average of 19.62.

In September 2018, he was named in Nangarhar's squad in the first edition of the Afghanistan Premier League tournament, going on to play in one match in the tournament.