Stuart Law urges Nepal players to focus on cricket, not social media, after a 10-wicket loss, ahead of must-win games against West Indies and Scotland.

Nepal head coach Stuart Law has gently but bluntly called out his players for being too ‘distracted’ with social media during the 2026 T20 World Cup. He blamed the drop in performance from the near-win against a full-member side to a big 10-wicket loss to tournament debutants Italy on the players’ extra focus on what people were talking about them on social media — the likes and impressions — after the former match.

Roughly 80% of Nepal’s online traffic is driven by social media platforms. It is credited for revolutionising public discourse, with the most major impact seen during the Gen-Z protests last year. The close match against Nepal drew huge commendation for the team across platforms. However, Law said, that while it’s important for the players’ livelihood, actual cricket needs to be their priority during the tournament.

“I think the way that we’ve got to look at it now is we’ve got to work out why the gulf from the England game to the Italy game happened," Law said in Mumbai on the eve of their must-win against West Indies, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo. “I think if the Nepalese people in the room here, I think they will understand that social media is a massive part of the Nepalese culture. To me, social media can be a huge distraction. If you’re focusing on what you’re doing on social media, if you’re focusing on what people are saying about us on social media, and not focusing on what the team needs, the team-mates are saying, and the game applies, you’re distracted from your actual job."

“It’s a difficult one because I know a lot of the players, they rely on it to gain endorsements and sponsorship, etc. But I think also that at World Cups, cricket is the main thing. I’ve tried to explain to them that if we keep winning games of cricket, your likes will go up anyway," he added.

“You don’t have to keep showing your face if you show that cricket in Nepal is going forward and we’re winning games of cricket. Your attraction on social media will go through the roof. It’s a difficult one for me because I’m a social media dinosaur, I don’t understand it. I know the negative impact it can have, but I don’t quite understand the positive impact. So I’m being educated on this as well, and trying to strike a happy medium with the players, to make sure they’re focused on their cricket, number one, and the rest of the nonsense that I call it – I’ve said that to the boys today – take that away from cricket, do it away from cricket. When you’re in cricket, do your cricket," Law said.

Nepal are placed last in Group C and need to beat the West Indies and Scotland to have a sliver of hope of reaching the next round.

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