David Warner’s international farewell will not be his final act. The Australian opener is set for a new stage – and a very different backdrop – after signing for Kathmandu Gorkhas ahead of the third season of the Nepal Premier League.
The tournament begins on 26 October at the TU International Cricket Ground in Kathmandu, where one of modern cricket’s most prolific openers will now stride out in Gorkhas colours. The club has confirmed Warner as their third overseas signing, capping four days of teasing announcements aimed squarely at excited local fans. They have yet to reveal how many matches he will play.
Warner swaps world titles for the Nepalese roar
In a video released by Kathmandu Gorkhas, Warner spoke with the ease of a man who has seen everything the game can offer, yet still wants something new. He said he was happy to join the team, and he framed the move as more than just another contract: he hoped the Nepal Premier League would bring joy and a sense of unity to a country that has gone through a difficult spell.
He also admitted he had heard plenty about Nepal’s fan culture – the noise, the colour, the sheer obsession with cricket – and said he wanted to feel that atmosphere for himself in the shadow of the Himalayas.
The welcome has already started. Former Nepal captain Paras Khadka publicly greeted Warner after the signing was announced, underlining what a statement this is for the league. Kathmandu Gorkhas executive director Anubhav Swar Sirohiya told the Kathmandu Post that negotiations had stretched over several months, a reminder that landing a player of Warner’s stature is rarely straightforward.
The persistence paid off.
A giant of the modern game
Warner arrives in Nepal as a retired international but far from a spent force. At 39, he walked away from Australia duty after their exit to India in the Super 8 stage of the 2024 T20 World Cup, closing the book on a glittering chapter.
The numbers tell their own story. He remains Australia’s leading run-scorer in T20Is, with 3,277 runs from 110 matches. In Tests, he played 112 times and piled up 8,786 runs, a career built on blistering starts and long, punishing innings. In ODIs, he added 6,932 runs in 161 games, forming the backbone of an Australian side that collected trophies at a relentless pace.
His medal cabinet is heavy: ODI World Cups in 2015 and 2023, the 2021 T20 World Cup, and the 2021–2023 World Test Championship all sit on his résumé. Few batters have combined volume, longevity and impact on big stages quite like him.
Franchise cricket has long been his second home. In the Indian Premier League, Warner became a legend, starring for Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Capitals. He captained Sunrisers Hyderabad to the title in 2016 and, across 184 IPL matches, amassed 6,565 runs and claimed the Orange Cap three times as the season’s leading scorer. Those are not just good numbers; they are era-defining.
A league looking up
For the Nepal Premier League, this is more than a marquee name on a team sheet. It is a signal of intent. A competition still carving out its place on the global calendar has managed to attract one of the game’s most recognisable modern openers, a player whose presence alone will lift ticket sales, television interest and dressing-room standards.
For Warner, the move offers something different: a fresh crowd, a new dressing room, and the chance to test himself in a rising cricket market where the game is a shared language and a point of pride.
When he walks out at the TU International Cricket Ground in late October, surrounded by the noise of fans who have followed his career from afar, one question will hang over the boundary rope: how much more can David Warner still squeeze out of that bat in the thin air of Kathmandu?
