India are through to the semi-finals of the Asian Games men’s tournament, with persistent rain and a damp outfield in Nisshin forcing the abandonment of their quarter-final against Afghanistan 16 minutes before the scheduled toss. India’s higher seeding – determined by the ICC T20I team rankings – ensured they went through at Afghanistan’s expense.

India will next face the winners of Tuesday’s quarter-final between Nepal and Sri Lanka in Thursday’s second semi-final. As one of the four seeded teams – India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are the others – to qualify directly for the quarter-finals, Sri Lanka will progress to the semi-finals if their match against Nepal is washed out too.

Like every year, Pushpraj Rimal, a tour planner and taxi driver in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, was looking forward to September for his business to boom.

But what he got instead was a series of cancellations by tourists after catastrophic floods last month killed more than 1,450 people and destroyed key highways, deeply impacting the Himalayan nation heavily dependent on tourism.

“It is still a lockdown kind of situation,” the 42-year-old told Al Jazeera nearly a month after the disaster.

Pushpraj, who speaks Nepali and Hindi, works on commission for several hotels and trekking companies in Kathmandu and the scenic town of Pokhara, known for its lake nestled in the Annapurna mountain range. Pokhara also serves as a base for Himalayan trekkers.

Nepal’s tourist season peaks after the monsoon ends in August and the skies are clearer. Tourism attracts thousands of international travellers, accounting for nearly 8 percent of Nepal’s gross domestic product and employs more than 1 million people.

Last year, Nepal saw more than 1.15 million tourists visiting the country, nearly a third of them during the September-November season.

But the floods this year, triggered by a glacial mountain collapse  along the Nepal-Tibet border in the north, have pushed tourists away from the unaffected areas as well.

“I had rented two cars for two months, but I have done one fourth of the business I usually do in a season. Tourists generally start pouring in from September, but most of them have cancelled this year,” he said.

“I will get no commissions from the hotels or trek organisers, nor has the taxi business worked well. … I am now waiting for the season to end.”

Rimal has two children, Hema, 14, and Rahul, 12, whom he had promised a tablet this Dussain, a prominent Hindu festival that usually falls in October. “But it seems impossible now. I will have to break their hearts and my promise to them for the very first time.”

(Aljazeera)