Paras Khadka: Nepali cricket’s key ‘architect’ has a vision for future

Growing up in Baneshwor, Paras Khadka never thought he would be a cricketer. Even though he played the sport from an early age, ‘architect’ was the the identity that he embraced for his future, during his early life.

Now Khadka turned a failure in his childhood dream. However, his contribution to the development of Nepali cricket is not less than that of an architect to a beutiful building. The national team’s captain for past nine years, Khadka still wants to contribute more to the sector.

A Cricketer ‘By Accident’

“I was good in studies and always felt that I would make a name for myself with the help of academics. If I look back, I feel I became a cricketer by accident,” shares Khadka.

Khadka’s cricket career took off when his school, South Point Boarding High School, participated in KB Khatri Memorial Cup. “The tournament was taking place at the TU Ground in Kirtipur, the place I had always dreamt of playing,” he adds.

Khadka then led his school to glory and was one of the standout players during the tournament. That put him in the eye of the selectors and was picked for Nepal’s U-15 team. He did not know that the national team selectors were also present at the match.

Khadka then carried on playing for other age groups and was also part of the team that won the U-19 Plate Championship in 2006. “That was an amazing tournament, not just because we won, but because we beat two test playing nations, South Africa and New Zealand.”

Winning that title gave Khadka confidence to do well in cricket. “I always doubted if cricket had a future in Nepal, which is why I always wanted to go to cricketing nations like Australia or England where I could study and play cricket simultaneously.”

‘Visa Rejection Meant Captaincy’

When then coach Roy Dias told him he was in line to become the captain, Khadka told him that he wanted to go abroad to peruse his studies, but when his visa to Australia got rejected he decided to give cricket a go.

“If I look back, I’m thankful that my visa got rejected after which I thought why not carry on playing cricket,” adds the skipper.

He shares that things started to get serious when was made captain in 2009. “It was only after that I started thinking about a future in cricket. Things were getting serious which is why I then started to push myself. I knew I could get better and even though we were in Division 5, I knew we could go a long way.”