Journey from Division to World Cup and ODI

KATHMANDU: AUGUST 3 – Nepali national cricket team member and former captain Paras Khadka announced his retirement from international cricket on Tuesday. Contrary to many people’s expectations, the 34-year-old Khadka is ending his 19-year cricket career. Paras was the most successful captain. He captained Nepal for 10 years and played international cricket for about 17 years.

Mainly, the Twenty20 World Cup and ODI recognition were the biggest achievements of Nepali cricket so far. Paras Khadka has always been associated with the achievements of Nepal as a successful captain. Paras captained Nepal in 2009. He was the leading player of the Nepali national team for most of the year.

Paras made his debut for the Nepali national cricket team against Malaysia in the ACC Intercontinental Cup in 2004. He had previously represented Nepal in 2002. When he was 15 years old. He made his way to the national team in the U-17 and U-19 age groups. He played in 2004, 2006 and 2008 U-19 World Cups.

Paras last played for the national team in the ACC Eastern Region T20 tournament in Thailand in March last year. The biggest achievement of the most successful captain of the Nepali cricket team, Paras, is to take Nepal to the 2014 T20 World Cup.

The 2014 Bangladesh World Cup is the first and only World Cup ever played by a Nepali senior team. Similarly, under the captaincy of Paras, Nepal became a one-day internationally recognized country in 2018 BS. Under his captaincy, Nepal defeated the Netherlands in 2018 and achieved its first ODI victory.

Cricket rising from division level

In Nepali cricket, Paras Khadka has started giving international titles to Nepal in the senior team from Division Five. In 2010, Nepal won the Division Five title at home, the first major title in Nepali cricket.

Under the captaincy of Paras, Nepal won the title of ICC World Cricket League Division 5 in 2010, Division 4 in 2012, Division 3 in 2013 and Division 3 in 2014. Similarly, his captaincy was important when Nepal and UAE became joint winners in the 2012 ACC Trophy.

Captain resigns

Paras resigned as the captain of the national team in October 2019. After the ICC suspended the Nepal Cricket Association (CAN) citing government interference, the role of manager and captain was handed over to Paras. In other words, no activity of Nepali cricket could move forward unless he wanted to.

As soon as CAN’s suspension was lifted, he resigned as captain. There is no shortage of people who think that CAN’s new leadership is uncomfortable when he does not come as he wants. However, there is no doubt that his next journey will be to lead cricket. He is expected to retire from international cricket at least two years before he can lead the party.

Under Paras’s captaincy, Nepal has won 11 and lost 15 of 27 Twenty20 Internationals. Similarly, in the six ODIs, he has led, Nepal has won 3 games and lost 3 games.

Also strong in personal records

Paras was also the highest run-scorer for Nepal in ODIs and T20 Internationals. He has scored 315 runs in 10 ODIs with 1 century and 1 half-century and 799 runs in 33 T20 Internationals with 1 century and 4 half-centuries. He is also the first Nepali player to score a century in both formats. He scored a century in the ODIs against the UAE in 2019 and in the T20 Internationals with Singapore the same year. Similarly, Paras has played 2 first-class 44 List A and 56 T20 games.

T20 World Cup and ODI recognition

In 2013, Nepal became the champion in the World Cricket League Division 3 held in Bermuda and reached the T20 World Cup qualifiers. The role of captain Paras was important when Nepal finished third in the selection and made it to the 2014 ICC T20 World Cup.

In Nepal’s T20 World Cup match against Hong Kong and Bangladesh, Paras scored 41-41 runs. Taking the wicket of Irfan Ahmed in the first ball of the World Cup against Hong Kong, he became the eighth player in the world to take the wicket in the first ball of the World Cup. Paras had an excellent performance in the thrilling 9-run victory over Afghanistan in that World Cup. For the first time after the World Cup, Nepal got T20 international recognition.

One of the biggest achievements Nepal has made recently is the one-day recognition. He led Nepal in the 2015-17 World Cricket League Championship. In Division Two in February of the same year, he made Nepal the runner-up and advanced to the World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe in March.

Nepal won the first one-day international on August 3, 2018, with a thrilling 1-run victory over the Netherlands. Three years later, Nepali team legend Paras Khadka announced that he would not play international cricket. His absence will definitely hit the Nepali national team. Because he was also a ‘hero’ and a ‘motivational character’ for Nepali players.