NPL Season 3 Coaches: All Eight Head Coaches and Their Teams

Eight head coaches run the eight NPL dugouts, and after six matches the table has split their seasons in two. Gyanendra Malla’s Karnali are unbeaten at the top, Tinu Yohannan’s defending champions Lumbini carry the best net run rate, and three coaches are still waiting for a first win. Between them sit two former international captains and a coach who has already reached two NPL finals. Every coach below is listed with his team’s record after six matches.

Winning dugouts

Gyanendra Malla’s Karnali have been the coaching story of the season so far. His side defended 132 against Janakpur and then chased a record 187 against Biratnagar, with captain Sompal Kami delivering four wickets and an unbeaten 62 in the second win. Malla, a former Nepal captain himself, now coaches the only side with two wins from two, and his next test is against Kathmandu on Monday.

Tinu Yohannan’s Lumbini have played once and won once, beating Sudurpaschim by seven wickets in the opener, and their net run rate of plus 4.599 is the best in the league. Yohannan coaches the defending champions, and his side’s second match (against unbeaten Chitwan on Saturday) is the first meeting of two winning dugouts. Sohail Tanvir’s Chitwan also sit unbeaten after an eight-run win over Biratnagar, built on Kamal Singh Airee’s four for 26, and Tanvir’s side carry that bowling form into Saturday’s game.

Middle ground

Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s Janakpur sit fourth with one win and one loss, their win coming by eight wickets over Kathmandu after a 19-run defeat to Karnali. Chanderpaul, a former West Indies captain, coaches the Season 1 champions, and his side’s next match (against Pokhara on Sunday) is a chance to bank a second win before the table tightens.

Misbah-ul-Haq’s Sudurpaschim sit fifth with the same one-win, one-loss record, but their context is heavier: Misbah, a former Pakistan captain, coaches a side that has reached both NPL finals and lost both, and his team’s unbeaten 51 from captain Dipendra Singh Airee against Pokhara was the innings that restarted their season. Sudurpaschim meet Biratnagar on Saturday evening, a game both dugouts need.

Searching for a first win

Dhammika Prasad’s Biratnagar are the only side to have played twice and lost twice, sitting sixth after defeats to Chitwan and Karnali. Prasad’s side finished third in Season 2, and their next match (against Sudurpaschim on Saturday) is already close to must-win.

Monty Desai’s Kathmandu have played once and lost once, beaten by eight wickets by Janakpur in Match 5, and their season restarts against table-topping Karnali on Monday. Kathmandu’s dugout also includes Sharad Vesawkar as cricket director, a separate role from Desai’s head coach position. Ajantha Mendis’s Pokhara sit last after one match, a six-wicket loss to Sudurpaschim, and Mendis, a former Sri Lanka spinner, faces Janakpur on Sunday with the only franchise never to reach the playoffs still searching for its first win of the season.

What coaches decide from here

Six matches in, the dugout calls have already split in two. Malla, Yohannan and Tanvir are managing unbeaten starts and the selection calls that protect them, while Prasad, Desai and Mendis are managing winless ones and the changes that stop the slide. Chanderpaul and Misbah sit between, with one win banked and the playoff race still wide open.

Every side has five or six league matches left, and the top four reach the playoffs starting 17 November. Squad rules frame every call: a maximum of four overseas players per XI, at least one ICC Associate player in every XI, and two unsuccessful DRS reviews per team per innings. With no side yet out of the race, the next round of matches, starting with Saturday’s double-header, will show which of these eight dugouts adjusts fastest.