Arjun Kumal: Pokhara's Poor Form Behind Falling Crowds

Pokhara Avengers batter Arjun Kumal has said what no one inside the camp could avoid saying any longer. After a fourth straight defeat in NPL Season 3, the young batter admitted his side's poor performances are the reason fewer fans are turning up for Pokhara's matches, and that the players, not the supporters, carry the responsibility for bringing them back. The admission came a day after Pokhara's 30-run defeat to Chitwan Rhinos left the Avengers winless, bottom of the table and with only mathematics keeping their playoff hopes alive. Yet Kumal was equally clear about what comes next. The team has not given up on winning its remaining games, and in a tournament where one innings can change everything, Pokhara intend to keep fighting until the numbers say otherwise.

Four defeats, no points, one honest admission

Pokhara's season has unravelled in four steps, each one harder to explain than the last. Sudurpaschim Royals beat them by six wickets in the opening match on 28 October, chasing down 148 with four balls to spare after Pokhara had posted 145 for 7. Janakpur Bolts beat them by nine runs on 1 November, defending 147 as Pokhara finished on 138 for 9. Lumbini Lions beat them by eight wickets on 3 November, bowling Pokhara out for 97 before knocking off the runs with more than seven overs left. And on Friday 6 November, Chitwan Rhinos beat them by 30 runs, defending 151 as Pokhara were bowled out for 121 in 19 overs. Four matches, four defeats, no points, and a net run rate of minus 1.679 that leaves Pokhara eighth and last in the eight-team table. No other side in the league is still waiting for a first win. Kumal did not hide behind injuries, the toss or the conditions. Asked about the thinning crowds at Pokhara's games, he gave the simplest answer a professional cricketer can give. "Our performance is not good. It is natural that the number of spectators is falling for Pokhara's matches." The honesty is striking because it reverses the usual complaint. Players in a losing run often ask for patience and talk about the fans who stayed away. Kumal did the opposite. He said the fans are right to expect better, and that the way to win them back is to play better cricket. When a team performs well, he said, the supporters stand behind it. When the results keep going the wrong way, their interest fades, and that is nobody's fault but the team's. It is an admission that carries weight precisely because Kumal is not a senior player protecting his place. He is a young batter who has spent much of the season fighting for his own spot, and he chose to speak for the whole dressing room rather than for himself.

The night Kumal stood alone

The defeat that prompted the admission was also the night Kumal produced his best innings of the season. Chasing 152 against Chitwan at the TU International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur, Pokhara lost wickets in clusters and never found a partner for their top scorer. Kumal made 45 from 44 balls, with three fours and one six, and was the only Pokhara batter to pass 25. The rest of the batting order folded around him. The last six wickets fell for 18 runs, and Pokhara were bowled out for 121 with an over unused. Rijan Dhakal, named Player of the Match, took 4 for 24, including two wickets with the final two balls of the match, and Kamal Singh Airee took 3 for 7 in support. Chitwan's total of 151 for 6 had been built on a 60-run opening stand, and the Rhinos' bowlers never allowed Pokhara a partnership of their own. Batting was hard work on a turning surface that gripped for the spinners and kept the batters honest, but that is not an excuse Kumal reached for. His innings was patient rather than explosive, built on waiting for the loose ball rather than forcing the pace, and it still was not enough to keep his side in the game. The picture it leaves is of a team with one batter in form and a batting order that has not yet found a way to bat together. Pokhara's totals tell the same story across the season. They made 145 for 7 in the opener and lost, 138 for 9 against Janakpur and lost, 97 all out against Lumbini and lost, and now 121 all out against Chitwan. Three of their four innings have finished below 140, and two of them ended with the side bowled out. A bowling attack can only defend so much, and a batting line-up that keeps collapsing leaves it nothing to defend.

What falling crowds really mean

Kumal's remarks about the crowds matter because they touch something bigger than one team's results. The NPL has been built on full houses at Kirtipur, and the sight of empty seats is the most visible sign of a season going wrong. For a franchise, crowds are not only atmosphere. They are the measure of whether a team has connected with its supporters, and they are the first thing sponsors and broadcasters notice when they look at a match. Kumal understands that connection. He said the players are working to improve their performances, and that the responsibility for the empty seats sits with the team rather than with the people who stayed away. It is a mature position for a young player to take in public, and it is also a practical one. Blaming supporters never brings them back. Winning does. The admission also frames the rest of Pokhara's season in a different light. Every remaining match is now a chance to give the fans a reason to return, starting with the next game against Karnali Yaks on Monday. A win there would not change the mathematics much on its own, but it would change the mood around the team, and mood is what Kumal is really talking about. Supporters who have watched four defeats do not need promises. They need one performance that shows the team has understood what went wrong.

A captaincy changed at the last moment

The defeat to Chitwan was also Pokhara's first match under a new captain. Chamika Karunaratne took over the leadership from Kushal Bhurtel for Match 17, a change made after three defeats had already left the season in trouble. Kumal said he only learned about the change at the last moment, a detail that says something about how quickly the decision was taken and how little time the players had to adjust to it. The change did not bring a change of result, and Kumal did not pretend otherwise. What he did say, when asked about his own place in the side, was that selection is not in a player's hands. A cricketer can only control what he does with the chances he is given, and the job is to perform well enough when the opportunity comes that the selectors cannot ignore it. It is the same philosophy he applied to the team's wider problems. Focus on what can be controlled, do the work, and let the results follow. For a side that has changed its captain and shuffled its combinations without finding a win, that steadiness matters. Pokhara have tried changing the leadership and changing the team. What they have not yet tried is winning a game with the group they have, and Kumal's message is that the answer lies in performance rather than in another change.

Three games left, and only mathematics

The arithmetic is now simple, and it is brutal. Pokhara have three league matches left: Karnali Yaks on Monday 9 November at 12:30 PM NST, Biratnagar Kings on Thursday 12 November at 12:30 PM NST, and Kathmandu Gorkhas on Sunday 15 November at 4:30 PM NST. They must win all three to finish on six points, and even that may not be enough. Their net run rate of minus 1.679 is the worst in the league, and several teams above them already have four or more points with games in hand. A single further defeat ends the playoff race outright, and the margin for error is gone. Kumal knows the numbers as well as anyone. "Our chance of reaching the playoffs is now only mathematical," he said. "But we will take the field aiming to win every match. Anything can happen in cricket." It is the standard line of a team in trouble, but coming from a player who had just been honest about the crowds and the performances, it sounds less like a cliche and more like a decision. Pokhara are not playing for the table any more. They are playing for the next win, for the supporters who might come back to watch it, and for the chance to finish a difficult season with something to show for it. Karnali, their next opponents, sit sixth with four points from four matches, and a win there would at least give Pokhara their first points of the season. After four defeats, that is where the recovery has to start: not with talk of playoffs, but with one win, then another, and with the crowds that Kumal hopes will follow.