Records & People

The World's Highest Cricket Match Was Played Steps From Everest Base Camp - Here's the Wild True Story

In 2009, fifty amateurs hauled stumps, a pitch and a pink ball to 5,164 metres and played a full Twenty20 - a record that stood for five years before…

By Laxman Rawal · Jul 20, 2026

Read the full story

Fifty amateur cricketers hauled wooden stumps, a pink leather ball and an improvised pitch to 5,164 metres above sea level - higher than every mountain in Europe or North America outside Denali - and played a full Twenty20 fixture on the wind-scoured glacial…

Travel Himalaya Nepal · News

Cricket at the roof of the world

On 21 April 2009, two teams calling themselves Hillary and Tenzing - after Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the first men confirmed to reach the summit of Everest in 1953 - lined up on Gorak Shep, a flat expanse of glacial sand and rubble at roughly 5,164…

Travel Himalaya Nepal · News

The record that lasted five years

Gorak Shep held the Guinness World Records title for highest-altitude cricket match until 26 September 2014, when a team of current and former internationals - including former England captain Heather Knight, ex-England spinner Ashley Giles and former South…

Travel Himalaya Nepal · News

What this means for trekkers

What this means for you You will not find a pitch marked out at Gorak Shep today - the 2009 match was a one-off logistical feat, not a fixture. But the village itself is very real and very reachable: it is the standard overnight stop the night before…

Travel Himalaya Nepal · News

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