Paras Khadka

Paras Khadka (, पारस खड्का, ; born 24 October 1987) is a Nepalese former cricketer who is the current Secretary of Cricket Association of Nepal and President of Bagmati Province Cricket Association. He captained the Nepalese cricket team from 2008 to 2019.

An all-rounder, Khadka was a right-handed batsman, and a right-arm medium-fast as well as an off-break bowler.

Born in Kathmandu, in 1987, Khadka first represented Nepal at the Under-15 level when he played in the Under-15 Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates in December 2002.

In 2001, after playing in the ACC Under-17 Cup in India, he played in his first Under-19 World Cup, the 2004 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in Bangladesh.

He played for the Nepal Under-19s the following year, playing once against India Under-19s, and also in the 2003 Youth Asia Cup in Karachi.

He made his debut against Malaysia in April 2004.

He also made his debut for the senior side that year when he played against Malaysia in the 2004 ICC Intercontinental Cup, also his first-class debut.

Later in the year, he played in the 2004 ACC Trophy in Kuala Lumpur in addition to ACC Fast Track Countries Tournament matches against Singapore, the UAE and Hong Kong.

In early 2005, he played in the Repêchage Tournament of the 2005 ICC Trophy,

After a match in the 2005 ICC Intercontinental Cup against Hong Kong, Khadka returned to the Nepal Under-19 team for the 2005 ACC Under-19 Cup, held in Nepal.

Nepal won the tournament after beating Malaysia in the final, thus qualifying for the 2006 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka the following February.

Nepal won the plate tournament in the World Cup, beating Test-playing nations New Zealand and South Africa along the way.

Returning to the senior side, Khadka went on a tour of Pakistan before playing in the 2006 ACC Trophy in Kuala Lumpur.

He also played all four ACC Premier League matches against Hong Kong, the UAE, Singapore and Malaysia that year.

He played in the 2007 ACC Under-19 Cup in Kuala Lumpur, which Nepal again won after beating Afghanistan in the final.

He also played in the 2007 ACC Twenty20 Cup in Kuwait, and captained Nepal in the 2008 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in Malaysia, leading Nepal to the tenth-place finish.

Before the 2008 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup which he captained, Khadka was quoted by the World Cup souvenir program as being "arguably good enough to be in the line-up of any of the Test-playing countries".

Under his captaincy, Nepal won the 2010 ICC World Cricket League Division Five in Nepal, 2012 ICC World Cricket League Division Four in Malaysia, 2012 ACC Trophy Elite in UAE, 2013 ICC World Cricket League Division Three in Bermuda, 2014 ICC World Cricket League Division Three in Malaysia, participated in the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh and gained the Twenty20 International status.

He also successfully led the country to win the 2010 ICC World Cricket League Division Five.

Khadka became the sixth Nepali cricketer to score an international century, when he hit an unbeaten 106 off 77 balls against Kuwait during the 2012 ACC Trophy Elite in October 2012.

In May 2012, he went to play for the Ontario Cricket Academy and Club in Canada for a four-month spell through the efforts of his national team coach Pubudu Dassanayake.

In the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, he scored 254 runs in 8 innings at an average of 50.80.

In 2012, Nepal won the 2012 ACC Trophy Elite title in the UAE, where he scored a total of 291 runs at an average of 72.75 and picked up 9 wickets.

He also scored his maiden century against Kuwait in the tournament.

He was named the Player of the Tournament.

Then he led Nepal to win the 2012 ICC World Cricket League Division Four in Malaysia.

Khadka rejoined the club for 2013 season as vice-captain.

He was also named the Player of the Tournament in the 2013 ACC Twenty20 Cup, where he scored a total of 207 runs with an average of 41.40.

He led Nepal to win the 2013 ICC World Cricket League Division Three in Bermuda and got qualified for the 2014 Cricket World Cup Qualifier in New Zealand.

He also successfully led his country to their first World Cup appearance in the 2014 ICC World Twenty20, after finishing third in the 2013 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in UAE just behind Ireland and Afghanistan.

In 2014 ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh, he scored 41 runs in both matches against Hong Kong and Bangladesh.

He became the eighth player in T20I history to a take wicket with the first ball of his career.

He set this record against Hong Kong when he took the wicket of Irfan Ahmed.

ESPNcricinfo said that he is Nepal's Kapil Dev after he took two catches during the match against Afghanistan in the 2014 ICC World Twenty20, which helped Nepal seal the 9-run victory.

In the 2015 ICC World Cricket League Division Two, he scored 185 runs in 6 innings at an average of 30.83 and picked up 6 wickets at an average of 22.83 and an economy rate of 2.63.

Nepal qualified for the 2015–17 ICC World Cricket League Championship but failed to secure promotion to Division One and qualification to 2015–17 ICC Intercontinental Cup.

Khadka played in Nepal's inaugural One Day International (ODI) match, against the Netherlands, in August 2018.

He is often considered as the greatest cricketers of Nepal.

On 28 January 2019, he became the first Nepalese batsman to score a century in an ODI match, doing so against the United Arab Emirates.

On 28 September 2019, he became the first batsman for Nepal to score a century in a T20I match, doing so against Singapore.