NEPAL TELECOM TO SPONSOR NPL SEASON 3

Nepal Telecommunications Company Limited (Nepal Telecom) will sponsor the third edition of the Nepal Premier League after signing a memorandum of understanding with the Cricket Association of Nepal in Kathmandu on October 18, 2026.

THE ANNOUNCEMENT

Nepal Telecommunications Company Limited, the country's state-owned telecom operator, has come on board as a sponsor of the Nepal Premier League's third edition. The memorandum of understanding was signed during a programme in Kathmandu on Saturday, with Nepal Telecom Managing Director Sangita Pahadi and CAN General Manager Utsav Dhungana putting pen to paper on behalf of their respective organisations.

The deal lands at a significant moment for the league. With the ICC's official sanction secured earlier in the week and marquee overseas signings — David Warner, Shakib Al Hasan, Moeen Ali, Sikandar Raza and Andre Russell — already announced, Season 3 is shaping up as the most commercially ambitious edition of the NPL yet. A national telecom giant backing the tournament adds institutional weight to that ambition, signalling to other corporates that the league is a serious, bankable property.

Timing matters too. The signing comes just eight days before the first ball of the season, when defending champions Lumbini Lions face Sudurpaschim Royals in the opener at Kirtipur. Sponsorships announced this close to a tournament usually command premium visibility, with the sponsor's branding set to feature across stadium advertising, broadcast graphics and digital coverage from day one.

WHAT NEPAL TELECOM SAID

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Nepal Telecom Chief Technical Officer Dilliram Adhikari said the company had been supporting national-level cricket tournaments for years, framing the NPL partnership as a continuation of that commitment rather than a one-off splash. The remarks underline how Nepal's biggest corporate names increasingly see cricket — and the NPL in particular — as the country's most reliable sporting platform.

For CAN, the sponsorship is another building block in a busy October. The association has spent the month locking in broadcast arrangements, confirming the ICC sanction, and watching franchises finalise their overseas rosters. Commercial partnerships like this one convert that momentum into the financial stability a 27-day, 32-match tournament demands, covering everything from venue operations at the TU ground to the broadcast production that carries the league to a global audience.

Nepal Telecom's involvement also fits a wider pattern in Nepali cricket, where the telecom sector has historically been among the most consistent backers of the sport. With mobile penetration deep across the country, the company's customer base overlaps heavily with the NPL's target audience — young, digitally connected fans who follow every ball on their phones.

A SPONSORSHIP RACE HEATS UP

The Nepal Telecom deal is not the only commercial news around the league this week. Biratnagar Kings, fresh from announcing Andre Russell as their marquee overseas signing, have also named Bagmati Plastics as their Official Home Partner for the season — a signal that franchises are monetising aggressively beyond the central league sponsorships.

That dual track — league-level sponsors plus team-level partners — mirrors the commercial structure of established T20 leagues, where broadcast rights, title sponsors and franchise deals stack into a sustainable revenue model. For a three-year-old league, the NPL is assembling that stack quickly, and the pace has clearly accelerated since the ICC sanction removed restrictions on overseas player recruitment.

Each new deal also raises the competitive bar between franchises. Teams with stronger commercial backing can invest more in support staff, training camps — Biratnagar Kings, for instance, are currently training in India ahead of the season — and fan engagement, all of which feed back into on-field performance and the league's overall spectacle.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR SEASON 3

On the field, the countdown is now measured in days. The tournament opens on October 26 with defending champions Lumbini Lions facing Sudurpaschim Royals at 5:00 PM NST, the first of 28 league matches before the playoffs begin on November 17. Off the field, each sponsorship announcement raises the stakes: bigger commercial backing means bigger expectations for crowds at Kirtipur, for the NetTV and Himalaya TV broadcast, and for the league's growing international audience.

Nepal Telecom's entry also carries symbolic value. As a state-owned enterprise, its backing is effectively a public-sector endorsement of the NPL's place in Nepal's sporting landscape — the kind of signal that encourages other institutional sponsors to follow. With eight days to go until the first ball, the league's commercial picture has rarely looked stronger, and CAN will be hoping the momentum carries through the full 27 days to the final on November 21.