NPL 2026 Ticket & Fan Guide: TU Ground Matchday

A day at the NPL is decided long before the first ball — by the ticket in your phone, the gate number printed on it and the time you leave home. This guide pulls together the confirmed essentials for Season 3 at TU Ground in Kirtipur: where to buy tickets, which gate to head for, when matches start, and a checklist to run through before you travel.

Tickets: eSewa is the only official channel

eSewa is the league's official ticketing partner for Season 3, which means every legitimate ticket for every match flows through one platform. Buy through the eSewa app or website, keep the booking reference and the phone number the booking was made under, and save a screenshot of the confirmation as a backup in case your network drops at the gate. The October 26 opener between Lumbini Lions and Sudurpaschim Royals and the November 21 final will be the first to sell out, so book those the moment sales open rather than hoping for match-day availability.

The one-channel rule is also your best protection against fraud. Previous seasons saw touts and social-media resellers offering duplicated or entirely fake tickets around big games, and the fix is simple: if it is not on eSewa, it is not official. Never transfer money to a stranger for a forwarded screenshot, never buy a printed ticket from outside the ground, and report suspicious sellers through the official league channels. A genuine eSewa booking is tied to your account and your phone number, which is exactly what gate staff will check.

Seven branded fan gates at TU Ground

Ahead of Season 3, Xtreme Energy Drink has branded seven fan entrance gates at TU Ground — one per sponsored franchise. Your ticket carries a gate number, and the franchise branding makes each entrance easy to spot from the crowded approach roads around the stadium. Check the gate on your ticket the night before and head for that one rather than simply joining the nearest visible queue; the wrong gate means a long walk around the perimeter and, on big days, a missed first few overs.

Treat your gate like a boarding gate. Security screening at each entrance takes time when thousands of fans arrive in the same half hour, so plan to be at your gate well before the start rather than at it. Gates typically see their longest queues in the 45 minutes before a match, and arriving an hour early turns the wait into part of the day — food stalls, the warm-up on the big screen, the build-up noise — instead of a stressful sprint.

Match timings to plan around

On double-header days, matches start at 12:30 PM and 5:00 PM; on single-header days, the match starts at 5:00 PM. All times are Nepal time. The pattern matters for planning: if you are attending the evening game on a double-header day, the 12:30 PM crowd will be streaming out just as you arrive, so build that overlap into your transport plan and your gate arrival time.

The tournament runs from October 26 to November 21, 2026, and every match is at Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur — there is no travel between venues to worry about, which makes the Season 3 schedule the single most important page to bookmark. Confirm your exact date and start time there before travelling, because the fixture list is the one detail worth double-checking the night before, especially if any timing adjustments are announced.

Match-day checklist

Run through this before you leave home: eSewa booking reference saved and screenshotted, ID that matches the booking, gate number noted, stand and seat category confirmed, eSewa payment receipt in your email or app history, transport to Kirtipur booked with a buffer for traffic, and a final check of the fixture in case of any timing change. Charge your phone fully — your ticket, your booking reference and your ride home all live on it.

Travel light: large bags slow down every screening lane, and prohibited items will be turned away at the gate. October and November evenings in Kirtipur cool down quickly once the sun drops, so fans heading to the 5:00 PM game should carry a jacket. Food and drink options inside the ground can be limited on busy days, so eat before you come if you are settling in for a full double-header.

Getting to Kirtipur

Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground sits in Kirtipur, southwest of central Kathmandu. Public transport and ride-hailing will get you close, but the roads around the ground clog badly in the hour before a 5:00 PM start — leave early and treat the journey as part of the outing. Parking near the venue is limited, so shared transport is the safer bet on match days, and it solves the far more important problem of getting home after a night game.

What to do if something goes wrong

If your eSewa ticket does not appear in the app, check the booking history and your SMS confirmations before panicking — and contact eSewa support with your booking reference rather than buying a second ticket from an unofficial source. And if a match timing changes, the official league channels and the schedule page will carry the update — trust those, not forwarded messages.