Nepalese cricket icon Paras Khadka has announced his retirement from international cricket, bringing an end to the career of one of Nepal’s greatest cricketers, and its most successful captain.
Khadka, 33, took to Social media to make his announcement on retiring from playing international cricket today.
— Paras Khadka (@paras77) August 3, 2021
The announcement meant Khadka’s final international ODI match would remain his 10th ODI: the match against the USA at Kirtipur in February 2020. Paras also played 33 T20Is in an international career that began in 2004 as an Under-19 player.
His statistics are outstanding: more than 1,114 international runs across formats, 2 centuries, and 5 half-centuries. An allrounder who bowls both medium pace and off-spin has taken 17 international scalps.
In 2009, Paras Khadka took over the national captaincy from another legend Binod Das. During his captaincy, Nepal enjoyed success in ICC World Cricket League Division tournaments and achieved ODI status on 15 March 2018. He also brought the nation to witness his team appearing in the 2014 ICC Twenty20 World Cup in Bangladesh.
Despite all his success, he announced his resignation from the captaincy on 15 October 2019.
“Playing for Nepal has been my biggest achievement and for that, I will always be indebted to my coaches, players, fans, stakeholders, friends, and family for their continuous support over the last 18 years since I started as a young 15 years old, back in 2002,” Khadka wrote on his retirement note.
“Why now? Because it’s about time. As a cricketer, I have given my heart, blood, and soul and have always dreamt to achieve better for my country. My ultimate dream is to see Nepal have a better cricketing system for which I have spent all my energy. In the last two decades to improve will require equal support from everyone in the cricketing community and beyond. This amazing journey on a cricket field as an international cricketer ends here but the cricket dreams for my country have just started,” he further said.
